Sins of Lesser God
by Isadora26
Summary: Part one of the God's Trilogy. A new Allie tries to save the world but could destroy Dean and Sam in the process.


1Chapter One

The plane climbed a few hundred feet and leveled off causing the dimly lit passenger lights to flicker a bit.

Vanashi sat in the center of the floor of the empty cabin inside a large circle of blood with symbols of all sorts surrounded him. Three clay jars sat before him. They were older then man's rule of earth and they had been painstakingly collected for years. Ever sense Vanashi found out that Alturoc had returned and Vanashi had resigned from Foci command. There was a major dispute between Vanashi and the Foci. Now most of the rebel Foci degenerates that no longer served the Foci had fallen under the banner of Vanashi.

The factions didn't exactly work against each other. They just didn't see eye to eye on the execution of certain activities. The Foci was bound by arbitrary rules, many of which no longer held reason or rhyme. Vanashi was bringing the rebel faction into the new millennia in style and with the ability to sacrifice innocence for the greater good. He didn't care if the veil, the mystical barrier that kept those who were innately magical from the view of those who weren't, was breached so long as the problems were solved.

Problem solving was exactly what he was doing right now. Earth was scorned as a wasteland since the great retreat, when most magical creatures had left this realm for those that were stronger and rich in magic. When the weave healed itself over the many millenia that followed the wars only the evil bastards who knew that there was a chance for a shift in power had returned. These were the worst of the worst, Demons that had been banned from other planes for their heinous crimes. These beasts had finished the initial battle to kill each other and the Foci had kept it all from the lesser beings, the humans. Now though one ageless foe stood triumphant and he had begun to bring in the rest of his minions from planes far and near. He was building an army bent on taking over the world. While the Foci had asked for help from the other rulers of the realms and been laughed right back to earth, Vanashi had been taking things into his own hands.

The other realms had deemed earth a cesspool for the wicked and left it to its fate. Vanashi wasn't about to let it fall to Alturoc - the highest ranking demon lord on Earth. Vanashi had collected the remaining vessels of the fallen gods of old that had sealed themselves into hibernation so as not to die from the damage that had been done to the weave. The weave was the soul source of the gods power and they couldn't live without it. The near total destruction of it in the final battle had killed most of the old gods. Vanashi was hell bent to release the essence of the ones who survived into the world. They would find themselves living vessels and as their power grew over the months that followed, they would be able to rival Alturoc's forces. The problem was that they weren't exactly inclined to help unless it fit their current inclinations. So, Vanashi had drawn the gods fractured and broken near brain dead spirits to vessels that were already at war with Alturoc or soon would be. He had added a binding spell so that the gods couldn't then jump ship and run to another plane. Being forced to stay in this world, they would have to fight Alturoc. 

Vanashi's voice was fading as he had been chanting long enough for them to have to refuel at least five times. They had crossed the Atlantic and back and were now over the southern United States. He knew he had to finish this and quickly. They could only escape detection for so long. At last he muttered the last word and raised his head. The clay vessels before him each opened an eye and he felt the cold icy tendrils of their power awaken. Even in their weakened states, they were more powerful than anything he could have imagined. He would have smiled but the pain that flooded his senses caused him to scream instead. It was no small thing that he had done and he hadn't meant to survive it. What he did, he did to save this world, not himself.

Likewise, the pilot knew what he was getting into when he signed on for this. And so it was a scream ripped through the plane before the jars split and the essences within poured out exploding outward like a huge atomic bomb in the atmosphere.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Ambre pulled her shoes off and tossed them into her locker. She then quickly stripped out of her clothes and stuffed them into her duffel bag to wash later. She paused before discarding her panties and sports bra. There seemed to be a hum to the air like everything around her was plugged into an outlet and buzzing with life.

She looked around the empty locker room. Across the rows of dimly lit lockers and the old splintering benches everything looked as usual but nothing felt right. She felt her heart beat pick up a bit as she turned her attention to the ceiling. Pipes ran parallel to each other one after the other across the ceiling with one large gap in the center of the room where there was a row of six skylights that ran the length of the room. She was standing directly under one of them.

The night sky appeared clear and calm lit by a million stars and as her green eyes starred upward, one of them exploded. She immediately had to shield her eyes from the brilliant display. " What the-" the hum in the air grew in intensity causing her skin tingle and the hair on the back of her neck and on her arms stand on end. Everything around her began to shake violently as the roar from the explosion blew out all the skylights.

There was a rain of glass that covered most of the locker room. Ambre saw the set of lockers directly in front of her begin to fall as she tried unsuccessfully to shield herself from the glass. She leapt into the air and to the right and managed to avoid getting flattened. Just then another set began to teeter near her. She only had one direction to move. She jumped onto the fallen locker before her as others crashed one after the other all around her. She screamed as soon as she landed.

She hadn't seen the glass on top of the locker and scarcely believed she could have missed it even if she'd managed to notice it. She felt thick slices of the transparent pieces cut into both her feet and then her back as she fell back wards. Her feet were what took the brunt of the damage. She turned her left foot and looked at the half- inch thick piece of glass that protruded from nearly eight inches of her tender flesh.  
She fell back again and felt hot tears sting her eyes as the noise and shaking stopped. The locker room door instantly flew open. "Anyone in here?" A young male voice asked worriedly.

"Yes!" She cried and tried to sit up instantly realizing she was almost naked. She gritted her teeth as footsteps sounded at the far end of the locker room. She caught a glimpse of her rescuer from across the room and cringed. 'Why me?' she thought quickly. 'Outta all the people in this place who could have seen me this way- it had to be him?' She didn't have the option to not except help at the moment however. "I'm over here." She sat up finally as his head came into view. Thomas wasn't a bad guy, and he didn't look bad either. He was sort of wiry but had put on some muscle since he came to work at the gym a few months ago. The only thing she really didn't like about him was his insistence to pursue her though she had obviously made it clear that she had a boyfriend.

Thomas stood about 5'11 with dark brown hair that fell just below his ears. He had compassionate brown eyes that reminded her too much of a puppy. His smile warm and inviting all but made up for the rest though, he was just too much of a soft -hearted nice guy. She had the feeling he would fold under the least bit of pressure. She thought of him more like a little brother then anything else.

"Oh My God," His eyes widened at the sight of her. "Are-Are…. Y…y…you okay?" He looked scared, concerned, and embarrassed all at the same time.

"I'm fine…just peachy keen," She replied sarcastically and then to drive the point home held up her foot. " Just don't think I'm gonna be walkin' out of here." Thomas swayed on his feet. He took one look at her foot and his eyes rolled into his head as he passed out next to the locker. Her mouth fell open in shock and she peered over the side of the lockers at his crumbled form in disbelief. "You have got to be kidding me." She quickly threw her head back and yelled as loud as she could " I need some help in here!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It was another long stretch of highway that went through half a dozen towns that were little more then one street way stations. Sam was asleep. He looked pretty peaceful tonight. So peaceful in fact that Dean smiled at the drool that was seeping from the corner of his mouth as he pulled out his phone, turned on the interior lights and clicked the picture. He was about to shut the lights off when Sam suddenly sat bolt upright screaming and clutching at his chest like he was having a heart attack.

"Sam?" Dean pulled the car over in an instant as Sam doubled over. Dean jumped out of the car running around the other side for better access to his brother. He wrenched the door open and knelt down beside his brother. "Sam what is it? Sam?"

Sam couldn't seem to get an answer out. Dean placed his hand on his arms trying to steady him. Sam had almost quieted with a half whimper half sob when Dean's focus shifted rapidly. The night sky exploded. 

The shock wave sent a preliminary ripple through the air and ground near knocking Dean off his feet. Then the real one hit. The glass on the Impala exploded inward and Dean barely pulled Sam out of the spray from the shatter before the force threw the both of them backwards skidding down the coarse country road that led into Huntington, MS.

They came to a stop with a groan and both were able to turn their heads for a look before they began to pull themselves up and to their feet shaking the gravel, dirt and glass from their clothes. "What the hell was that?" Dean whispered eyeing his brother in concern. He was referring to the screaming and the explosion because where he came from coincidences weren't that common in situations like this.

"I don't know." Sam couldn't describe it. It felt like someone had ripped his head and chest apart from the inside out in just a few seconds. He couldn't even remember half of the images that had flashed across his vision like some sort of supernatural direct download. "Dean ?" he looked back to the fading lights in the sky feeling the reverberating hum to the air that seemed to cause the worst case of goose flesh he'd ever had in his life.

"Come on...it's going to be alright." Dean followed his gaze to the sky as he put his arm around Sam's shoulders to steer him back towards the battered car. He was sure as hell going to find out though. Dean brushed the remains of the windshield out of the passenger seat before helping Sam inside. His little brother still seemed to be in some form of shock and Dean didn't know what to do at the moment. So he reluctantly elected to remove the glass from his own seat before driving them into the nearest town.

At least of Sam's condition got worse there would be a hospital. Dean watched as Sam leaned far back in the seat with a cough and frowned. God, what had they gotten sucked into now? 

Chapter Two

He had forty eight hours before the changes went into effect. Before the traces that were left of the old gods were released. Vanashi was a fool to think that he wouldn't find out. He may not have been able to stop the release, but he was determined to make sure that Vanashi's efforts were in vane. 

Forty eight hours marked the amount of time that it would take for the changes to become a rivaling force against him. If he could take out the vessels before then, than all of his plans were still right on course. If not, than the battle had merely become that much more interesting. The gods were a joke. Vanashi thought he was doing the world a favor but after so many years all that remained of what he had released was a flickering reminder that the gods had destroyed themselves. There was no presence there just power and what human could possibly learn to control that?  
Certainly not those that were chosen. He knew them all by name. Some more personally then others. Those that had been chosen. And he thoroughly intended for none of them to last the next 48 hours.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"You alright?" Dean walked around the bed and sat the duffle bag down with a concerned glance at Sam.

Sam was sitting on the other bed leaned forward so that his left elbow rested on his knee and his head fell into his hands. He actually looked better despite this stance. "I'm fine, Dean." The tone to his voice shouldered the annoyance that he leveled at his brother for seemingly babying him. It was a clear approach at getting Dean to quit asking.

Dean gave a half nod that betrayed his disdain at the lack of appreciation as he sat down on his own bed. "I'm going to try and get the windshield replaced tomorrow. We should be out of here in a few days." he couldn't drop it. Whatever had done this to his car wasn't what terrified him. It was the look on Sam's face when he came awake screaming. The pain, the fear, Dean thought he was dying. "Sam, try to explain it to me."

Sam didn't move really save to shift an inch or two in acknowledgment. "I can't."

"You haven't tried." Dean replied flatly. "I just...you...I've never heard you scream like that... and I've heard you scream a lot."

Sam finally seemed to take note of Dean's tone and he turned to look at him. "I'm alright Dean."

"You're not. I've seen you recover from visions a hell of a lot faster. This was something different." Dean countered his voice rising to match his mounting frustration. "It was like something attacked you."

"I think something did." Sam suddenly exclaimed. He hadn't wanted to voice it. Voicing it gave it credibility as limited as it may have been. It was still like admitting that you had a problem...one that you don't understand. "I don't know what happened. I was laying there and all of a sudden it was like something hit me...bored it's way inside and started ripping me apart. I thought I was dying." 

"So did I." Dean was glad he was talking about it because at least that let Dean know that Sam was seeing things closely related to his own view.

"I kept seeing this flurry of images and sounds. It was like a million visions trying to play out at once. I only caught a glimpse of some of them and I don't even remember what those were. I felt like I was going insane."

"You're not going insane. Something is happening here. In this place. This town. Whatever that was that blew out the windshield. It's like you had a reaction to it." Dean watched as Sam rose to his feet and started pacing.

"I know, but I can't describe it Dean. I feel..I don't know...I feel like something crawled inside and it didn't want to be there." Sam didn't realize just how terrifying that sounded until the words were out of his mouth. 

"What like a demon?" Dean looked about ready to grab some salt to test that theory right now.

"Not a demon. I don't think anyway. Whatever it was...is. I think it's still there." Sam replied. Dean's eyes narrowed in concern as Sam sank back down to the bed. "Whatever the case." Sam gave Dean a half smile with a subtle shake of his head. "I'm starving."

Dean let out a sigh knowing that they wouldn't know more til something happened or they knew what to do some digging into. He returned the smile and grabbed his jacket. "Alright. I saw a place a few streets over."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

She couldn't withstand the nightmare long before she woke to feel her eyes wet with tears of pain and an eerie rumble outside her window. God, she hated pain medication. They had given her entirely too much at the hospital and now she was paying for it. Her feet were wrapped though and she could walk so long as she padded along at a soft pace.

Ambre sat up on the bed as the rumble grew and she slowly rose to her feet on shaky legs.

She made her way to the window and pulled the curtain back to see if the weather had turned off bad. Yet, the picture that greeted her from outside the window was anything but comforting and she took in a deep breath trying to still her nerves. There were six motorcycles with large grizzly bikers pulling onto her front lawn in a chaotic fashion.

"I'm still dreaming." She whispered to herself as she saw a flash of a shimmer over the whole group and watched as the large men were instantly transformed into pig tusked leather faced monsters for but a moment. She blinked and they were men again. "Dreaming." She reaffirmed to herself. "Dreaming." Her voice became a whisper.

She closed her eyes and pinched her arm, having heard it often said that, that could wake a person. She jumped when the pounding began on the front door. It wasn't like they were knocking. It sounded more like they were barreling into it in order to break it down. She pinched her arm harder when the door burst in downstairs with a horrendous and sickening crash.  
Ambre finally opened her eyes as she heard grunting and what sounded like a heard of elephants bashing their way through the downstairs. She looked around her room frantically. This had to have been the most realistic dream she had ever had. She dove across the bed and grabbed up the phone. The noise downstairs grew louder and louder as well as the grunting and yelling in some sort of foreign language that sounded harsh and guttural.  
Ambre punched in 911 as fast as she could as she picked up the phone and flattened herself against the wall panting in terror. Tears of hysteria trickled down her face.

"911 emergency services. What is the nature if your emergency?" A female voice sounded in her ears and she said an inward thank you.

"There are men breaking into my house." She whispered hysterically.

"Ma'am I need you to calm down and give me your name and address."

"Ambre Davidson, 420 Juliard Rd." She panted into the receiver just as pounding footsteps reverberated against the stairs. She could feel the echo of the footsteps beneath her bare feet. Ambre tossed the phone and dropped to the floor. She crawled under the bed and yanked the yellow and white flowered bed skirt down all around the bed to make sure that she had as much cover as possible.

Her hand went to her mouth as she stifled a sob when the bedroom door burst inward. She slammed her eyes shut trying desperately to contain her own hysteria. She slowly opened them and watched in a fear filled paralysis as two sets of heavy boots walked slowly around her room. She could hear the other bedroom door being bashed in down the hall. 

There was a crash that caused her to jump hard and she held her hands harder over her mouth and nose hoping to high heaven that they didn't hear her as the night stand was lifted and she assumed thrown across the room. She heard it splinter upon impact with the wall and the dial tone of the phone as she watched the light in the room, shortly interrupted. Her lamp landed on the floor near the head of the bed and she watched the light roll with the lamp while it settled where it had fallen.

Suddenly the boots paused and she heard more grunts before she saw a huge hand reach down and grab the bed in the middle at the foot. She was about to crawl out the other side and make a break for the stairs when the bed exploded upward and splintered against the wall behind her. Ambre screamed and rolled narrowly missing a stomp from one of those powerful boots.

She made it to her hands and knees before she felt a powerful kick to her ribs that knocked the breath from her lungs. Strong arms wrapped around her arms from behind and they were quickly pinned behind her back as he jerked her to her feet.

She was spun around to face the other monster just in time to flinch before a fist connected with her right temple. Ambre's vision danced with orbs of light as she thought she was going to pass out. Instead, a sickening pain racked her skull as her vision cleared to reveal another fist rocketed into her mid-section. Her legs came up instinctively as she got out a scream.

"Ambre!" A loud voice suddenly screamed from downstairs. Ambre wrenched her head toward the door hearing her boyfriend, Shay.

"Shay!" She screamed back as she slammed her head backwards and caught the guy behind her hard in the nose. She heard a gut wrenching crack and his grip loosened enough for her to yank an arm free while simultaneously slamming a foot into bastard number two's groin. He doubled over as she was yanked backward to her other attacker who still had hold of her other arm.

She heard boots heading back down the stairs and screamed her boyfriend's name again in horror. He was grossly outnumbered. "Shay!" her cry was cut short as she was tossed into the wall and slid down it bawling.

Ambre didn't know where the strength came from but she pushed through the pain and pushed herself to stumbling feet making a mad dive for the closest exit, the window. She left it open usually trough October, as the weather didn't cool off until then. So all she had to get through was the screen. She reared her foot back and slammed her foot into it feeling it give with a loud creak before falling down the awning over her front porch and landing in the bushes below. As the screen fell away she adjusted her stance and started to climb through only to feel strong hands wrap around her waist as she was jerked back inside roughly.

The pig man slammed her into the floor as his friend kicked her in the forehead. Ambre didn't know how she stayed conscious. But she did, through the haze of pain and red she was still awake. She could barely move, but she could hear her boyfriend screaming downstairs. She felt a boot to the ribs and couldn't even get out a cry as the pain threatened once more to cast her into sweet unconsciousness.

The two walked to the door to grunt to their friends assuming that she was too far-gone to get away now. They were wrong. Ambre reached up and pulled herself onto the window ledge forcing her battered body to move despite the agony. She was all the way out onto the roof of her front porch when they realized she had moved. There was a mad dash for the window as Shay's screams resounded in her ears. Ambre slid down the side of the awning and grabbed the bottom just in time to slow her momentum before she plummeted over the edge and landed hard on her front lawn with a bounce and another thud that had her barely holding to life let alone consciousness.

"Shay." She whispered turning her head to take in the view from the open front door. Ambre gasped knowing in that one moment that she would never forget what she saw there. No one should have to see the final blow. The death of a loved one. Not like that.

She pushed herself up hoping they hadn't realized she had escaped yet as she made her way toward the road, stumbling in blind anticipation of the car that was coming in her direction. 

Chapter Three

"It's a little airy." Sam commented trying to pull their thoughts away from the uneasy circumstances even if the change of subjects would peak Dean's dismay at the condition of his car. Dismay might not have been a strong enough word as Sam watched Dean's jaw twitch and then pull tight.

"You're get out of jail free card just expired." Dean replied as he picked up his cell phone and began to go through the pictures he had in his folder. Once he settled on the one of Sam drooling on himself he looked through his contact list and raised his eyebrows in determination.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked quickly seeing that mischievous look that had crossed Dean's face.

"Just sending a picture." Dean replied nonchalantly.

"To who?"

"Just some chick in New York." Dean shrugged.

"Dean..." Sam cocked his head to the side as he looked to the face of the phone and the picture that resided there. His eyes widened. "You are not." He suddenly called out and reached for the phone. Dean tossed the phone to the other hand having to let go of the wheel long enough to fumble and catch it. It fell into the floor board and he and Sam both dove for it. Luckily Dean's hand had made it back to the steering wheel - he just had to grab the cell phone before Sam could get a hold of it and then look where he was going before he hit something.

Dean slapped at Sam's hand next to the gas peddle and then triumphantly pulled the cell phone up and out from under the dash with a satisfied chuckle. He had just sat up straight in the seat and peered through the windshield not expecting to see much on this stretch of quiet residential splendor.

Suddenly a woman was stumbling out into the street. Dean slammed on the breaks as his smile abruptly melted from his face. He was going to hit her. God, he was going to hit her. He swerved to the left and the car skidded sideways coming to a stop mere inches from her battered and bloodied form with the passenger door directly facing her.

Sam looked up in shock between Dean and the woman outside his window. Suddenly they all heard the commotion from behind her and saw the look of fear that came over her as several men seemed to be running straight for her. Sam got the door open fast with a quick "Get in."  
Dean had them moving again before the door was even closed. She collapsed in the back seat with a hysterical sort of shock induced sob.

Sam slammed the door closed and ducked down as a rock came busting through the passenger window spraying glass over him and knocking Dean in the shoulder as he sped away. "Jesus Christ!" Dean screamed. He looked over his shoulder and saw that this wasn't the end of it as the men were climbing onto their motorcycles and hurrying in their direction.

"Why are they after you ?!" Dean knew they should ask questions like that before letting a near broken woman into their car. Especially now that a high speed chase seemed to be destined to ensue. There was a time factor involved though.

"I don't know." Came a weak wail from the back seat. "They broke into my house... just started...they...God - Shay."  
"Dean they're gaining." Sam called out as he looked from the woman with her not so helpful explanations to the men closing the distance behind them.

"I'm aware." Dean replied through clenched teeth as he pushed down on the accelerator. "Look I need an explanation that doesn't end with cryptic meaningless mumbling." he called out as he ran a stop sign and spun the car to the right. 

"I don't know. I've never seen them before!" She called back. " They just broke in and started destroying everything. They didn't say anything. They just started hitting me and they...they...they killed my boyfriend." her voice fell off and Sam and Dean shared a sideways glance as Dean continued to try and lose them.

Sam looked over his shoulder at the woman and felt his heart slip into the pit of his stomach. She looked like she was barely holding onto consciousness. She was dressed in a nightgown and was barefoot signifying that she had been readying for bed, if not already in it. It reminded him of his Mom and Jessica, the horrific surprises in the night that could change everything.

"We've got to get her to a hospital." Sam said loudly over the nose from the air flowing in over the busted windshield and now passenger window.

"It's on my list, right after escaping from the gang of bikers, Sammy." Dean looked ahead to the busy intersection ahead and the red light that stood in their way. His eyes squinted up in a worrisome form of risk calculation as he quickly sized up the small amount of traffic coming through on the perpendicular road before them.

"Dean..." Sam had just become aware of the red light and his voice mirrored the terror as his hand went instinctively to the dashboard to brace himself for impact.

"Hold what you got!" Dean didn't slow down as he sailed through the red light at break neck speed narrowly missing three cars. The squeal of brakes sounded behind them and Dean checked the rearview as Sam looked back over his shoulder to see three of the bikes skid out from under the occupants of the motorcycles. Sam blinked in shock when one of the ones that had fallen jumped onto the back of another bike from the back of his falling transportation. The leap took a substantial amount of skill. "I don't think they're human." Sam whispered. He suddenly ducked as a shot was fired through the back windshield. The girl screamed covering her head as the glass rained down on her.

"Dammit." Dean screamed.

"Are you alright?" Sam called to the woman over the wind noise swirling through the glass coated interior.

"No!" She screamed back.

"Looks like you really pissed someone off." Dean called as he made a sharp turn to the left and saw one of the motorcycles slide sideways. Another shot narrowly missed the car. "What do these guys want?" He wasn't really asking her, more like saying it to himself in a baffling sort of tone. They obviously wanted her, but why?

He made another fast turn and kept going as Sam suddenly got that luck. Dean saw it out of the corner of his eye. He sank lower in the seat and put a hand to his head. "Sam?" As if he even needed to ask. "Dammit." he swore again. Sam winced pinching at the bridge of his nose as he leaned forward under the weight of the pain in his head.

"There is a bridge out just over that next hill." Sam snapped too and suddenly was back with them.

Dean's eyes narrowed. Since when did Sam have instant visions that didn't pertain to the demon that they were looking for? If they were waiting for something really weird to happen to explain what had happened to Sam earlier this was not the time to explore it. Dean turned right on the next road he saw and watched in satisfaction as the motorcycle carrying the two men tipped. The last one finally turned off having lost all his support for this fight. 

Dean let out a breath as he looked around the glass littering his car. He looked to the woman in the backseat. "We're going to get you to a hospital." he said quickly. She was barely with them falling under the strain of the beating she had taken. Dean looked to Sam who was studying the dashboard a little too closely.

"What?" Dean asked as he turned back onto the main highway through town. 

"The Hospital is four lights down on the left." Dean looked ahead not recognizing this area of town. They hadn't been through it yet. "Sammy?"

"Don't ask me how I know." Sam turned fearful eyes in Dean's direction. Dean fell silent and focused on the road carefully checking the rearview for any more tails. There didn't seem to be any. He didn't know what scared him more. The recent chase, the dying woman in the back seat, his brother's seemingly changing abilities, or the fact that he had yet to make any sense out of any of the before mentioned events. 

Chapter Four 

Dean cut a glance in Sam's direction as they sat in the waiting room...waiting. They had eaten at the snack bar downstairs, had given their limited statements to the police with fake names and such and were now waiting for word about Ambre Gallager. They found that she was a nurse here upon arrival. It was a small hospital and everyone seemed to know and like her. It was hard to watch the people around her working to save one of their own. Emotions flying high.

Now the brothers had settled in. Dean could tell that the new developments with his visions were working some fear into his younger brother's heart. Sam had tried to deny it by getting caught up in the limited information that they had gleamed from just being around Ambre's friends and the small town law enforcement. Dean could see it though. It had him worried too.

"You wanna talk about it?" He leaned back and folded his hands behind his head not expecting an answer really. At least not one that included much more then a no or a shake of his head.

"It's just there." Sam whispered. The waiting room was empty save the two of them and there was no one to listen in, yet still he whispered. As if lost in his own contemplation of the developments. "I don't know how I knew...know."

"Know...know what. Did you see something else?" Dean straightened up waiting for the explanation as worry lined his brow.

"I'm not seeing it Dean. It's just there." Sam met his eyes briefly before looking back down to his hands. "It's not like the visions."

"Wait...I don't understand." Dean's brows furrowed to mark the escalating fear he was harboring for his brother.

Sam looked up suddenly. He looked all around the room and then to the door hurriedly getting to his feet. Dean was on his feet right behind him. "Sammy?" he asked following him through the door.

"Something's coming." Sam whispered pausing right outside the waiting room door in the whitewashed corridor. He stopped and turned toward an elevator that had just dinged. Dean followed his gaze. It was eerie watching the elevator doors open. Dean felt like he should be ready for flight or fight dancing on the razors edge of the unknown with no answers in sight and it terrified him. What worried him more was that Sam had something - not someone.

Dean watched as three mean exited the elevator. They looked normal enough in an FBI sort of way. Wearing black suite with white button up shirts and black ties. They walked with confidence stuffing their hands in their pockets as they made their way down the hallway and to the nurses desk. Dean looked back to Sam who had followed them in his line of sight all the way from the elevator the nurses desk. Sam was breathing hard, like he'd had a shock to his system and Dean found himself looking back to the men in confusion.  
There was a shimmer like heat coming off a grill in the summer and the three men transformed before his eyes. They grew to near eight feet with long straight gleaming manes of black hair. Unfurled at their backs each had a pair of large black wings. Dean's eyes widened as the shimmer returned and three men were standing there again.

"Do you see them?" Sam asked quietly.

"I don't know what I saw." Dean whispered in return, in his own shock. It was one thing for this to be happening to Sam, but this sort of thing wasn't a regular occurrence for Dean. He didn't know what to make of it. 

"Wings...black wings." Sam replied as if mesmerized by the figures there. Dean grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him to face him. Something was happening - to both of them. Sam seemed worse for the wear though from it. Like it was hitting him much harder. It had to have something to do with the explosion. Or did it? Maybe it was just this place...maybe there was just something wrong here. "They're going to try to kill her." Sam looked Dean straight in the eyes when he said it.

Dean looked back at them - now just ordinary men walking toward an ordinary door. Right before they stopped to open the door though the shimmer returned and Dean felt his breath catch in his throat as they shifted back into the black winged atrocities of before. One of them looked back over his shoulder and smiled at them with an evil toothy grin. Dean swallowed the lump in his throat as he took a questioning step forward.

"Come on." Dean grabbed Sam by the sleeve and started in that direction. The shimmer occurred again as the men walked through the door and they became men again. Dean wasn't waiting for this to suddenly make sense. In his experience you had to actively seek answers and where he was sitting this was a lead. 

"They'll kill us." Sam's voice sounded to his right. Dean felt like he was listening to a child. Like Sam had no idea what he was saying. The vacant fearful look on Sam's face seemed to support that theory as Dean dragged him on through the doors and followed the men/winged creatures - whatever they were.

"Sam, you're going to be alright." Dean simply said quickly. The black suites were twenty feet ahead.

They could move fast.

They stopped.

It was eerie because they didn't turn around. One of them slowly craned his head back.

Dean saw one of the black suite's hand going inside his jacket and then in a blur the black suites were whirling around and the knife sailed through the air. He didn't have time to move. Suddenly it stopped.

The knife.

It stopped inches from Dean's left eye and he stood there frozen watching it as the blood rushed from his face. Dean thought that they were toying with him until he noticed Sam. It took a few moments to realize that Sam's face was strained beside him. Dean only noticed it from the corner of his eye.

Sam was holding the knife back.

Dean ducked out of the way and watched as Sam seemed to let it go with is mind. The knife dropped to the floor as the second and third flew, both hitting Sam. 

Things seemed to go into slow motion as Dean screamed No and threw his own body over Sam's to protect him from any more assault as they both fell to the ground. The commotion was quick to dissuade any further action from their attackers as security came running.

Dean pulled back regretting the instant he had decided to follow them against Sam's child like advice as he saw the blood pooling around the knife wound in Sam's abdomen and left shoulder. Dean screamed for help as he saw Sam struggling for breath his face contorted in pain. "It's going to be alright." Dean got out in a panic. "Sammy, you're going to be alright..."

He was shoved away as the nurses came running to Sam. Dean slid backwards his back against the wall as he watched them start to work on Sam. He looked down the long corridor and saw no traces of what had been there. No evidence of what had just attacked them and then looked back to Sam as his heart slowly plummeted. He had to be alright...God, why didn't he listen to him? He didn't know any more now then he had when all this began and all he had to show for it was Sam's life slipping though his fingers.

Chapter five

Dean sat leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees his head in his hands running his fingers though his short hair as the hours seemed to crawl by. He would alternate this stance with pacing the waiting room, corridors, or forcing himself to take in a cup of coffee or soft drink when one of the nurses took pity on him and brought it too him.

They had been in Huntington for six hours when he finally looked up at the clock in the waiting room. It was 3:48 in the morning and still no news. At least not on Sam. Ambre made it through her surgery and was in recovery. Sam was now in surgery though. It was the knife to the abdomen that had caused the majority of the damage.

Dean was trying to retrace their steps tonight, trying to find some reason, some thing that made the pieces even remotely begin to fit. All he came up with was the explosion. Everything had happened since then, at least to Sam's abilities. With whatever was happening to Dean. And then there was Ambre. Some small town nurse that had a host of things that go bump in the night trying to kill her. He couldn't put it all together yet, but he would.

Dean was pacing the hall when Stacey, the receptionist, came and told him that Ambre was in a room and awake. Dean was quick to thank her and make his way in.

Ambre looked worse then Sam. Most of the damage that she had withstood left horrid reminders along her face and arms. He'd never seen a woman beaten so bad. Dean walked to the edge of the bed careful to give her visibility without much effort on her part. He imagined that even turning her head hurt right now. "Hey." She managed a smile at him and Dean returned a weaker version.

"Hey... You made it." Dean tucked his hands into his pockets swallowing as he briefly looked away to hide the worry for Sam's fate that surfaced in his eyes.  
"Thanks to you." She spoke slowly with effort clearly still under the effects of the anesthesia. "And you're friend."

"Brother." Dean nodded seeing the tears forming in her eyes. He remembered what she had said in the car about her boyfriend and knew how she felt for the most part. Even in grief though he needed answers. Time to heal would come once everyone was safe. "Sam's my brother." Dean replied.

"Would you tell him I said thank you?" She asked after looking about the room and finding that he was not there. Dean looked down to the bedside and nodded. He heard the tears in her voice as she fought back a sob.

"I'm sorry about your boyfriend." Dean whispered. He finally looked up and asked what he needed to. " Do you know what happened?"

Ambre met his eyes and the pain in hers seemed to mirror the souls remorse in Dean's past. The sacred art of losing. " I'm just a nurse. I grew up here. Work here. Go to church here. Planned to raise a family here." She broke off to fight off the tears. "Just some average girl. Met Shay in high school. We were going to get married next fall." She shook her head lightly as if trying to shake the horror filled images from her mind. "I got off work and went to the gym. There was some explosion...busted out the skylights." She gave a strained laugh through the tears. "I was suppose to meet him for dinner but wound up back here getting my feet stitched up. He came to pick me up and we went home. Simple as that. I got all tucked in upstairs. He was watching TV I think. When I woke up I thought it was thunder outside the window..." She had to stop unable to stave off the sob any longer. "It sounded like a battering ram hit the door. They didn't say anything. They didn't stop. They didn't do anything but destroy everything in their path. I don't even know how I got out...I should have been dead. I saw him though through the front door after I climbed out the second story window. I saw them kill him."

Dean slowly wound his fingers around her hand as he realized that she may not have as many answers as he had hoped. "I'm sorry." he breathed. It was disheartening to say the least. God she wasn't in any shape to handle another attack and he was sure that whoever - whatever it was that was after her - for whatever reason wasn't done yet. They hadn't even waited for her to get out of surgery before they came again.

Dean squeezed her hand and looked back to the hallway thinking of Sam. They had gotten caught in the middle it seemed. Dean felt her fingers flinch under his hold. He looked back down quickly and watched as her back arched off the bed. Dean was about to let go - to call out for help. But he suddenly felt his own body arch where he stood and what felt like electricity passing between them.

He couldn't do anything but stand there clenching her tiny hand in his as he watched in awe as the deep shades of blue and red began to recede across the shadows of her face. The cuts and abrasions closed. She settled back against the bed and looked up at him in shock and horror as he was finally able to release her hand and stumble backwards speechless. "What did you do?" She gasped much more coherently.

"I don't know." he panted out of breath looking to his hand in terror. What was happening to him? Had he done that? Healed her? Dean looked up to her face as if to make sure he wasn't seeing things again. It wasn't any more comforting to have it confirmed. Dean felt a tremble run through him as he looked to the door like a caged animal.

Ambre was checking her body over now, sitting up in bed in a panic sort of stupor trying to take in what had just happened. "You...what are you?"

"Just a guy." Dean didn't know what else to say as he reeled in his own tumultuous mind. This had just gone to a whole other level of strange.

She was just a girl with a whole lot of darkness after her, he was just a guy who could seemingly heal, Sam's abilities seemed to be growing in leaps and bounds and he was fighting for his life. When had the world gone insane?

Their eyes met as she pulled the covers back and looked over her legs throwing her feet over the side of the bed. "That's amazing." She looked terrified even in her praise. Dean wasn't so impressed as he was afraid. Nothing came without a price.

Nothing.

'What's happening to me?' Dean looked to the hallway again thinking of Sam... 'What's happening to him?' he looked back to Ambre getting to her feet steadily. 'And how in the hell does she fit in?'

Chapter Six

He was through playing. They should have already been dead by now. The three Black winged devils kneeled before him. His pig faced demon slaves that had already been flayed for failure. Their corpses littered the throne room as the devils reverently stated their case. Alturoc looked over the kneeling figures with a snarl.

"You withdraw when you should lay waste." He growled. The shadows quivered and danced with in the thrown room. They looked the least opposing of the beasts present, yet Alturoc knew their true power. He had yet to authorize their release as he hoped his lesser minions could dispatch the Winchester's and the girl. It was a simple task.

One of his high ranking Lords had almost accomplished it with the Winchester's already. "Throw them in the pit." He screamed all at once. "And return with the marked one readied for possession incase the shades fail. As for you..." He paused waiting for the winged devils screams of protests to die down as they were dragged away. He looked over the eight shifting shadows that hovered around his thrown. " I want their heads. If you fail...I will not be so lenient."

There was a woosh of movement as the shadows whispers reached his mind. "Go." He half growled half screamed. He had not come this far to be put off by some half wit acolyte and his dim witted attempt at salvation.

This was his domain now.

OOOOOOOOOOO

The candle lit corridor was narrow at best and the 48 people walking down it at the steep downward incline silently respected the hallowed halls as they made the first pilgrimage of the new millennia into the heart of the revered ancient citadel that had housed the order since the vast retreat. 

Once the last great magus entered the large expanse of the room a thousand torches burst into flame along the walls. Sebastian watched as the old ones took their seats as he paced the front of the hall readying to relay the horrifying news. He couldn't blame Vanashi really. What he had done very well may have saved them all, but it was well outside the ordered dictations of the Foci. "The essence of the last remaining gods was released seven hours ago over the southern united states. A rogue faction was responsible for the act."

A low murmur went through the crowd. Sebastian slammed his staff against the floor and listened to the reverberation from the action as silence fell over the group. "They have no minds left after millennia without form. Their power remains and has become infused with appropriate vessels. Though we did not sanction the action. This counsel will not stand by and watch their defilement. Alturoc's forces have already been unleashed and I expect the foci to retaliate."

There was no disputing Sebastian's iron clad rule and no one dared speak against him while he stood before them. "Rouse the soldiers! Alturoc will declare war and we will not be defeated!" Sebastian's rousing cry got a cheer from the group. The odds were not on their side but Vanashi had done one thing right. He had provided them with a weapon more valuable then they could have ever hoped for. "The gods have risen!" There was another cheer. "We shall send the servants to guard them until such time as they understand their new forms...their power. And they will fight for us!"

The great cheer shook the halls as Sebastian held his staff up. He sucked in a deep breath watching the crowd as he hoped like hell the vessels were truly worthy.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Sam came to in a hazy sort of fog. He took in a breath and licked at his dry lips as he worked up the strength to open his left eye halfway. Dean stood there.

Sam opened the eye a little wider as he took in Dean's pallor and the determined look on his face that reminded him of some half bit psychic trying to bend a spoon with his mind. As bodily sensations began to come back into focus he felt Dean's hands wrapped around one of his as he rubbed and needed the flesh there. Sam forced his other eyes open and blinked against the harsh light of the room.  
The monitors beeped their chorus as he cleared his throat in confusion. "Whatcha doin'?" He got out in a coarse voice knowing immediately that he needed some water.

"Shhh." Sam looked over at Ambre standing in her hospital gown, arms folded across her chest as she teetered back and forth on the balls of her feet as if she was cold. She looked better then the last time he'd seen her. Much better in fact. "I'm trying to concentrate." Dean said quickly.

Sam glanced back up at his brother and clicked his tongue against the inside of his mouth as he arched an eyebrow in wonder. Maybe he was dreaming. "Can I have my hand back?" God his throat felt like gravel. 

"Sammy, be quiet." Dean replied in a rush. He suddenly opened his eyes and looked to Ambre. "I feel something." he said as if it was supposed to mean something.

"Yeah my knuckles...I think you're cutting off the circulation." Sam looked from one to the other and furrowed his brows together to tired to even think about trying to play twenty questions to figure out what was happening. Sam saw Ambre's eyes widen as she watched - most of her attention focused on Dean.

"Someone want to tell me what's goin' on?" Sam asked finally in frustration. Suddenly he didn't have to ask. He felt a jolt go through him originating from Dean's hand clasped around his. Sam felt waves of rippling energy cascade through his body destroying the pain and clearing his mind in one giant leap. He looked up to Dean his eyes wide and met his brother's smiling smack happy face.

"You just...you can? " 

Dean's smile widened. "Isn't it just kick ass?" he chuckled. He didn't want to mention his fear that there was a price to pay for it yet. "I think it has something to do with the explosion...I don't know how, but you're abilities have been growing and I seem to have developed...one."

"It's a real gift." Ambre whispered as a hint of a smile touched her still grieving expression.

"See." Dean nodded to Ambre. "I think we're all in agreement."

"Oh don't get me wrong." Sam replied quickly as he pulled himself into a sitting position. "I think it's...wonderful. It's just all happening a little fast ...don't you think."

"Don't get jealous." Dean smiled down at him. "Just because I have an ability now too."

Sam scoffed at him. "I'm not jealous."

"Come on...you can admit it." Dean's smile was getting on his last nerve now as Sam swung his legs over the side of the bed. "And you're welcome."  
"Oh yeah...thanks. I'm not jealous though." Sam insisted.

"Are too." 

"Guys." Ambre's voice held a hint of annoyance as she rubbed two fingers over the edge of the curtain trying to keep the noise down. She was still so confused and the jesting that bordered on a fight was grating. She let out a long sigh of frustration and suddenly saw a bright flash of light as the curtain exploded in flames under her hand.

"Holy Shit!" She screamed out as she jumped back and shook her hand trying to get it to go out. She realized all at once that it didn't burn and held her flaming hand up as her mouth fell open. Dean and Sam looked over in awe as Sam quickly jumped from the bed and grabbed the water bottle from his bedside table to douse the curtain.

"You're on fire." Dean whispered suddenly wishing he'd gotten that ability. It looked amazing. If powers were just getting handed out then why did couldn't he have had that one.

"I know." She breathed unfurling her fingers as the flames danced about her palm. She looked to her hand in terror filled wonder trying to will it to go out. "I can't stop it." She whispered in shock. Dean grabbed the pitcher that housed the rest of the water and walked up rather calmly. He poured it over her hand and watched as the flames died down giving her a big smile as his way of saying you're welcome. 

Watching the smoldering curtain and then looking back to Ambre and Dean, Sam suddenly straitened and began searching for his clothes. "It's time to go." he got out in a rush.

"What's wrong?" Dean and Ambre asked all at once.  
"Something's here...again." Sam spotted his pants hanging out of a basket just under his bed and hurriedly got into them. Before pulling the hospital gown over his head and feeling in the basket for his shirt. "Where's my shirt?" he asked standing back up. He liked that shirt.

"They cut it off while they were trying to save your life." Dean said as Ambre walked out the door trying to dry her hand off on her hospital gown. She made her way to the nearest supply closet and grabbed herself a pair of scrubs and a shirt for Sam then hurried back at a run.

"Didn't you say we need to go?" She wasn't in the mood to ask questions at the moment. They could explain it to her later. She wanted to live and she had a feeling sticking with these two was the only way it was going to happen. She wiggled into the scrub bottoms and then dipped back behind the curtains partial cover before hurriedly shedding the gown to put on the top.

Dean craned his neck toward the side of the curtain as Sam slid the scrub shirt over his chest in time to see him. Sam slapped him on the arm and Dean gave him a 'What?' shrug.

"Come on." Sam called as he got his shoes on. Ambre came around the curtain in her scrubs but still barefoot. Dean grabbed her elbow and steered her around as Sam followed behind them out the recovery room door.  
Now they just had to make out of the hospital in one piece... 

Chapter Seven

She rolled over with a groan and swatted at the alarm clock before realizing that it was the phone that was ringing. She wasn't exactly sober...she never was. Life had taught her that drinking could be beneficial in her line of work. She picked up the phone still laying on her stomach with the blanket pulled over her half naked form.

"Yeah." She whispered into the receiver as she shouldered her latest boy toy's arm from around her back and listened to him roll over with a drunken groan.

"We have a job for you." She felt the left side of her mouth curl upward at the edges as she slowly propped herself up on her elbows.

"I'm listening." She replied kicking the boy toy from the bed. He rolled out of the bed and sat up dazed as she threw him his clothes and mouthed "Go."

"Your charges have been located at the Huntington Memorial Hospital. Two men and a woman. Alturoc hunts them." Her smile grew as she sat up glaring at the boy toy's protests before motioning at the door. He cursed repeatedly as he pulled on his clothes and then grabbed his wallet off the small hotel table before walking out the door in a huff as she waved at his back.

"It'll take me two hours." She replied quickly as she scanned the floor for her own clothes. She got to her feet stretching her long arms over her head and grabbed her shirt from the motionless blade of the ceiling fan.

"You have 15 minutes." Came the reply.

She paused her white shirt in mid air over her head.

"You want me to break protocol?" She asked in shock. There was a first time for everything. She had broken protocol repeatedly, but she had never been asked to do it by her handlers.

"Absolutely."

"Who the hell am I protecting?"

"You have fifteen minutes." came the reply again.

"Dammit." She cursed as she wriggled into the shirt before she yanked her pants out from the half closed night stand drawer. "That doesn't even give me time to get my team together."

"This isn't a team assignment. Just you."  
She paused again her hands resting on the button of her pants. "What?"

"Keep them safe." the grating deep voice replied.  
"I'm going to need resources..."

"Unlimited...your account has already been credited." She buttoned the pants and narrowed her eyes as her movements became faster. She pulled her pistols from the night stand drawer and tucked one into the holster strap still attached to her right ankle. She wound her shoulder holster around her and fastened the next gun there before she began to work on her wrist straps. "And Nessa..."

"Yeah." She breathed as she pulled the guns into the wrist straps before grabbing her jacket from the floor.

"Keep the body count as low as possible." He said as if he expected to go in one ear and out the other.

She smiled brightly as she pulled her jacket on. " You should know by now...I'm not that kind of guardian." She unfurled her golden wings usually hidden by the shrouded illusions of the veil. Breaking that guise alone was breaking protocol and she was about to do one worse. She was going to take to the air in plain site of humans. These charges must be something all together different because in her two hundred years of service the Foci had never once asked her to break protocol. She hung up the phone and pulled her boots on before tossing the hotel key on the bed and walking out the door tucking her back pack between her wings.  
With one confident move she looked left and right before taking flight.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

They ran through the halls dodging orderlies and nurses. Dean stopped as Sam shoved open the stairwell door and began down the stairs with Ambre. Sam looked back at him questioningly as Dean yanked open the red fire safety box aside the stair entrance and yanked the fire extinguisher free...just in case. He came down behind them, taking the stairs two at a time.

"What exactly is it that you two do?" Ambre asked out of breath as they descended the floors of the hospital. She had a feeling that it was something in law enforcement. They way they moved. Maybe military.

"We're self employed." Dean said without missing a beat getting a strange look from Sam who gave a slight shake of his head.

"What does that mean?" She asked quizzically.

"We work for ourselves." Dean said evenly with a sarcastic tone to his voice. 

She shot him a glare as they continued their descent. "You're just a wellspring of knowledge."

"Aren't I though." Dean replied his smile broadening.  
"I'm a nurse." She offered hoping it would help with the clarity as to what it was they were actually into.

"We know." Sam said softly with a kind tone to his voice. "I think everyone here likes you too."

Ambre was a bit taken a back at his candor because of the luck that she had had at communicating with the brothers so far. Sam was a far cry from Dean's stark real demeanor. He wore his heart visibly yet still at a distance.

"Too bad I'm leaving it behind." She replied as they rounded another corner. 

"What makes you say that?" Sam asked matching her rather athletic pace.

"I just have this feeling." Her voice fell with the foot falls. She didn't know if it was the mourning or not.

Sam had the same feeling. It was hard to deny it. The same whisper at the back of his mind that told him what was what for the last eight hours seemed inclined to agree with her. He didn't want to give it as much credence as he did but he didn't know what else to do.  
He didn't answer her as they had reached the lobby. Sam shoved the door open and pulled her through it looking back at Dean who smiled back at him holding the fire extinguisher up as he moved behind them. They made their way through the double doors of the lobby moving toward the car at a hurried pace.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

The shadows flowed upward along the foundation, through earth and stone as they wound their way into the lively hood of all that was human. They danced along the corridor floors of the hospital until they recognized the fleeing figures and followed them solemnly and silently into the parking lot.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Dean paused at the side of the Impala.

Sam opened the passenger door and watched as Ambre got in, no questions asked. He turned back to his brother in wonder and watched as he laid his hands on the trunk in reverence. Sam paused with a skeptical look.

Dean looked up somewhat disappointed and met Sam's eyes.

"What?" he asked as if Sam should know what he was trying to do.

"Dean," Sam began.  
"What?" Dean asked again clearly playing into Sam's wondrous words of wisdom. "You don't know until you try." he replied quietly.

"You thought you could heal the Impala?" Sam asked in amusement.

"Dude, we need to get moving." Dean said clearly annoyed as he made his way to the drivers side dodging the question. He was exhausted but he was still planning on driving them out of town as fast as he could. Ambre got as comfortable as possible in the backseat. Sam slowly sat down in the passenger side.

"I can't believe you thought you could heal the car." Sam shook his head with a light laugh and turned to look out the broken back windshield. His smile slowly faded as the shadows began to dispense out of the windows near the top floor of the hospital behind them and then began a swan dive toward the car. 

Dean had just cranked it and taken off and was quickly picking up speed. Sam didn't even have time to get out a warning, though.

The wind seemed to stir inside the car picking up a whirlwind of glass as all eight shadows swept inside the car through the back windshield, flying straight through Ambre. Her body arched forward from the pull of the spirits that coursed through her at breakneck speed. They seemed to gain substance as they wound their way around Dean and jerked his thrashing body from the drivers side, pulling him straight through the open front windshield and then straight up into the night sky.

"Dean " Sam jumped over the divide between the seats and gained control of the car just in time to see Dean's form began to plummet from extraordinary heights.

Dean felt his body soaring to extreme heights as he jerked his gun from his waist band and began to fall. He screamed from the sudden change in trajectory as he squeezed off the first bullet. His body twisted from the force in the air as he went back first towards the ground opening fire. He watched as one bullet went through the first shadow and then the next three hit the one beside it with no problem. As they hit the shadow seemed to take on somewhat human features before collapsing to the ground seemingly dead.

He was thinking that they flickered in and out of the corporeal plane and that would mean that a lot of bullets would be needed. Because most would pass through these beasts. Then again he was also thinking that Sam and Ambre were going to have to figure that out on their own as he was about to hit the ground and die. 

Sam slammed on the brakes as one of the shadows flew through him. Ambre screamed as the shadow that had passed through Sam paused before her then thrust it's hands into her chest. She felt the tendrils of cold ease around her heart as the pain came.

Sam felt the car pull hard into a turn still in the large parking lot of the hospital as the brakes locked up. Sam's attention was torn as he watched Dean plummeting and heard Ambre scream at once. But he suddenly felt the power expound inside him. Dean seemed to slam into something in mid air and bounce upward then slowly float back upward. Sam felt the need to concentrate in order to keep his brother in the air.

Dean wasn't about to question the sudden salvation as he raised the gun to fire at the next shadow that came at him. He cursed as the bullet sailed through the creature and then felt the slap of cold hard nothingness as he was tossed through the air like a rag doll. "Sam " Dean screamed. 

Sam had to fight to gain control of Dean's body again. 

Ambre felt the shadow slowly gaining substance as it squeezed her heart within her chest. She wrapped both hands around the forearms of the humanoid shape and suddenly felt the heat began to radiate from her fingertips. The shadow paused for just a moment before it suddenly let out a shriek. Red tendrils climbed up it's arms as they disintegrated from the sheer heat that near melted the upholstery. The rest of the creatures body was engulfed and it turned into a pile of dust at her feet in mere seconds.

Dean gave his head a shake and tried to clear the double vision that had resulted from slamming into a tree face first before he was able to whirl around and fire a shot through one of the other bastards that had just clawed the skin from his right side. The bullet met it's mark and Dean watched as something began to pool out of the hole the bullet had torn. The creature shrieked and fell earthbound. Dean hoped like hell it was dead.

"You alright?" Sam asked Ambre as he saw blood seeping through the wound torn in her chest. 

"No." She gasped out as three shadows tore through the car. Sam knocked one away with a mental slap and saw Dean began to lose altitude. Sam couldn't do both. Sam concentrated on slowly lowering Dean but lost control of his brother in the last twenty feet when one of the shadows shoved it's hand into his head. 

Ambre jumped with a scream in the back seat when Sam's head fell back hard against the seat with nothing more then a garbled grunt. He seemed unable to breath. Her eyes wide with terror, she frantically pulled herself forward enough to grab hold of the thing.

Her hands were already warm by the time she took hold of it. The shriek seemed faster this time as the creature burned before them.

Dean hit the ground with a resounding thud and screamed out as his left ankle broke beneath the force of the fall. He still managed to level the gun upwards as tears of pain lined his eyes and he rolled over instinctively drawing the knee of the effected foot to his chest with a half roll. He squeezed off another shot as one of the shadows swooped down and swiped a hand through his shoulder. The shot passed through as the beast dwindled in and out of phase.

Dean screamed and dropped the gun as the hand tore into his shoulder. Dean grabbed a hold of the arm that extended from the claws making a mess of the muscles beneath the skin as he felt the surge that he had identified right before he healed Sam. It was different this time.  
As Dean's hand made contact with the creature a shriek filled the air and the shadow substance began to melt into globs of goo. It was as if Dean was drawing whatever life the shadow could possibly harbor and was ripping it from it's body pulling it into his own. He felt the ankle snap back into perfect alignment and his other wounds close. As the monster's withered husk fell, Dean stared at his hand in terror. Healing was one thing, but this was something even more horrifying, because he didn't know how to control it and he wasn't sure that he wouldn't accidently do the same thing to Sam or Ambre the next time he tried to heal them.

Sam sat up with a gravely thank you to Ambre. Sam looked to where Dean had fallen as the last three shadows came racing toward the car with what sounded like a low growl. Sam felt the power surge from his body with a scream as the shadows were thrown back from the car by some unseen hand. The shadows sailed backwards and disintegrated on contact with a bus that came driving by on a neighboring street.

Sam immediately put the car in park and threw open the car door. He stumbled out of the car as blood began to run from his nose in a steady drip. Ambre was coming out from behind him holding to her chest and the bloody mess that resided there. They both began to make their way toward Dean who was rolling to his knees and getting to his feet.

"You alright?" Sam called wiping the blood on the back of his hand as he blinked to clear his vision. Ambre came up along side him and Sam wrapped an arm around her to help steady her. She looked worse then he did.

"Yeah." Dean called back keeping his distance. He approached the clearly injured pair apprehensively. God what if he just touched them and killed them. Dean took a step back as Sam reached for him.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked immediately.

"I think you were right about this whole going to fast power - ability thing." Dean replied quickly.

"Why, what happened?" Sam could tell from a mile away that Dean was scared and though heights and flying never much thrilled his older brother, Sam had a strong feeling that those two things had little to do with the fear. Sam reached for Dean just to take his arm to see if he'd been injured and Dean jerked backwards careful to keep the contact from happening. 

"Don't." Dean screamed. Dean couldn't let him touch him. He wasn't torn even though he saw the wounds on Sam and Ambre. What he had just done to that shadow...Dean could still feel it's life's energy flowing from the monster into him with no control over it. He couldn't risk it.

Sam took a step back feeling Ambre tense in his arms as her hand went to her chest. "It's alright." She whispered. "We're still alive. I can patch us up on the road." She knew enough to know that whatever was after them wasn't going to stop now. Three attacks in eight hours proved that. She looked to the lightening horizon and took in a deep breath feeling her sundered muscles in her chest protest before she turned to the car. "We should go."

Sam was still watching Dean uneasily. Dean gave a nod in Ambre's direction. "She's right. They aren't done yet." He swallowed the knot forming in his throat as he avoided the both of them on his way to the driver's side. Sam reluctantly helped Ambre back into the car as he let the mystery go for now. They could talk about it later.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Nessa hovered in the air near the sight of the last battle with a slowly growing smile. It had been a long time since she had guarded anyone with that much spirit. The three of them fought well. Well enough to best shades from Alturoc. Eight of them.

Had she gotten there in time, she may have well died trying to defend the three charges. Shades were notorious for killing by one mere sweep of the hand through a soft body. That three humans had bested them spoke volumes of the three. They were far more then human.

She looked to the sunrise, just now peeking over the horizon as the Impala pulled away from the hospital. She wouldn't be able to stay in the air long without being spotted. She'd need a car. Thank the Foci for unlimited resources. Her smile only grew. 

Chapter Eight

The dew lit dawn kissed the horizon swinging the pale light over the crest of day as the Impala sat parked in the near empty lot of the 24 hour pharmacy. A red convertible with it's black top locked into place sat at the far corner where Nessa made use of her cell phone to call in every favor that she could think of.

"Talk to me." A deep male voice coughed out from the other end of the cell as she lit another cigarette while watching the Impala.

"I need a drop." She said softly before exhaling the smoke out into the cold dawn air.

"Nice to hear from you too." There was an odd sort of smile to his voice as a chuckle resounded in her ears. There was a pause as he heard her exhale. " You smoking again?"

"Listen, drop the pleasantries. This is business. I need a drop point as close to Huntington, MS as you can get. We're headed due East. I have funds and I'm going to need a lot of equipment."

There was a long pause and she imagined that his smile slowly dwindled away at the serious tone to her voice. She was usually so aloof even on a job. She made a lot of friends like that, now though. Things had entered an entirely new realm. She hadn't had a challenge in over a century. Nessa intended to meet it head on as prepared as she could possibly be.

"Sure. Let me pull up the GIS. What's on your list?"  
"You're going to need a pen and some paper." She smiled softly as she watched Dean walk into the store wearily. "It's long."

"I'd ask what you've gotten yourself into, but I doubt I'd get an answer." he sighed as she heard the keys of the keyboard clicking in the background. "The closest I can get to Huntington with a LONG list would be ...on your current heading. Huntsville, Al. That's about three hours. Can you make it that long?"

"I can make it." She replied matter of factly.

"Now about that list..."

"You have something to write with?"  
"Yeah."

"White phosphorus grenades..." She began.

"Jesus." he broke in.

"Keep up..." She cut him off.

"Armor piercing rounds, holy water..."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Alturoc stood with his back to the wall, his skeletal hand raised to a half skinned face as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. There was a look of anger that was always prevalent, but today it seemed even more menacing. The throne room was barely occupied now. The shadows that had been sent back to him were being tortured for their failure and their husks were to the line the corridors of his home for the next twenty four hours as an example for all those that would fail him. 

"How many did they send?" his voice cut through the tension in the air and cast fear in a free fall into the hearts of the most vile creatures that had ever walked the earth above. 

"Just one." Came a reply from seemingly no where and everywhere at once.

"One guardian?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yes Sire."

"She'll try and bring them in." Alturoc whispered. "Where's the marked one?" 

"He's on his way up. He needed healing and we put Demon Lord Roshnahi inside him."  
"Is he strong enough?"

"Soon." 

Alturoc looked over the sparse room with a slow sigh. "They'll go to protected ground. We don't have time to bring him in yet. I want an army of Broghna in the halls. Assembled in half an hour."

"Yes sire." There was a wavering pause as the air coalesced into a semi humanoid shape beside Alturoc. "Sire, you do realize that no one has dared to broach the Foci's territory in centuries."

"I'm aware." Alturoc walked a few feet from his throne and looked down his bone encrusted halls. " Add a squadron of magus. We'll fight their kind with our own. Make sure they know what the hell their doing and the cost for failure."

"You're declaring war." the disembodied voice whispered.

Alturoc looked up unflinching. "So be it."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The water ran down his face and into the porcelain of the sink beneath his hands where he clutched the sides so hard that his knuckles turned as white as the surface he held to. He swallowed hard as he met his own eyes in the mirror. "What's happening to me?" he asked no one in particular. "To Sammy? The girl?"

"You're strong." a fleeting shrill whisper cascaded over his spine causing him to straighten as he looked around the empty bathroom drawing his pistol. Dean was jumpy at best.

"Who said that?" He called out trying to mask the fear that oozed off him.

"Look at yourself." Came the reply. Dean reluctantly looked back to the mirror as the florescent lights overhead flickered eerily. There was a moments pause in the flickering lights before a figure transposed over his own was barely visible in the mirror. The man that seemed flickered in and out of him was nine feet tall his form overshadowing Dean's.

"I'll help you."

"I don't need any help." Dean breathed wide eyed in terror at the figure.

The figure seemed to break momentarily from Dean's body as it moved forward and pulled it's face closer to Dean's from the other side of the looking glass. "Of Course you do." 

Dean's breathing became labored as he watched a hand reach through the mirror and grip him around the throat. "QUIT FIGHTING ME!" the figure suddenly screamed in anger. Dean stumbled backwards as the figure disappeared in the blink of an eye.  
He spun around the bathroom waiting for the next attack, feeling as if he was losing his mind as he finally left the bathroom in a rush and gathered together the supplies that Ambre had said she needed to do a patch job on her and Sammy.

He sniffed back the terror that gripped his heart now even more reserved to try and heal his brother and their temporary companion. He threw the armload of medical supplies on the counter and paid little attention to the suspicious look that the cashier gave him. Dean felt his world spinning out of control faster then he ever thought possible as he slowly pulled his defensive walls around him masking the fear and pain...the doubt...with a hard iron visage of unflinching resolve and remarkable determination. He had to be strong. 

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"Hold you're head back." Ambre said softly as she inched closer to Sam between the front seats. Sam complied giving the storefront another worried glance as he looked for Dean's form inside the pharmacy. Sam pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh wiping at the blood still flowing from his nostrils as Ambre pressed a cloth to his hand so that he could use something other then his hand to ease the burden of catching the coppery fluid.

"You seem pretty calm." Sam said in a nasal voice as if he had a cold .

Ambre shifted uncomfortably but gave him a half smile all the same. She was dying inside, but years of working the ER had helped her mold a pretty good game face. Her boyfriends death had been able to seep into her mind as the action died down. She had almost been thankful for all the fighting, all the fear and confusion. It gave her a way to deny the fact that it had happened. It was like she could almost picture the attack on her self in that house without him in it. At least for seconds at a time and with some pause to the grief.

"I think I've amassed an uneasy confidence about our current situation." She replied as she pulled the fabric from the stomach of the scrub top she had on and pressed it hard against her chest. 

Sam's head lulled in her direction as his eyes met hers. "Me too. It's unsettling."

She nodded. "I know I should be scared to death."

"Maybe it's just shock." Sam said softly.

"I don't think so." There was a wince to her voice as she pressed as hard as she could without falling under unconsciousness from the action.

"Dean's about the only thing at the moment that had me a little freaked." Sam wouldn't normally have admitted it to a stranger, but after what all had happened... He watched her eyes travel to the front counter where Dean was now paying for the supplies she had asked for. "He's got an amazing ability and he hasn't tried to use it to help us. It's like he's afraid of it."  
"Maybe the euphoria of having a gift wore off. I know mine scares the shit out of me. I mean what if I accidently set the car on fire?" Ambre watched as Sam half smiled and pulled the fire extinguisher up from between his legs in the passenger seat. She laughed and then cringed at the pain that caused. Both smiles slowly faded as they both looked back to the store front. "Still what can go wrong with his ability? It's not like we've got control of it. They seem so emotionally driven...and lets face it. We're all a mess right now."

"I can see that." Sam understood where she was coming from. He felt like he had a better handle on his own abilities though. As if dealing with the nightmares and visions, the limited telekinesis had given in him some edge over what ever was happening to him now. He still remembered how terrifying it was at first though...how terrifying it could still be and to develop something like that over night...something so strong and overbearing. His own abilities were weak compared to what all three of them had experienced the last few hours.

"So what is it you two actually do for a living?" She whispered as she sank against the drivers seat. She felt the need to change the subject.

"We hunt demons, ghosts, spirits, things that aren't supposed to exist." He held his head back further as the pain seemed to get worse.

"Sounds like a stressful job what with this many nasties out there." She replied softly as she pulled open one of his eyes and frowned. "Look don't take this the wrong way...I mean I believe you and I'm sure you have a multitude of experience with this sort of thing, but we all know what's happening to us is more then what you're used to. I mean I can see it from the shell shock we're all experiencing. Still you have to convince your brother to take a chance and heal you." She said in a rather authoritative tone. "You've got a really bad cerebral hemorrhage. I mean you're going to die in maybe five hours if he doesn't and you'll be lucky to stay awake more then another half hour. That thing had it's hand around my heart for just a few seconds and it caused a lot of damage to the surrounding muscle tissue. But it had it's hand in your head for a lot longer then that and every sign I'm seeing...it's not good, Sam."

Chapter Nine

Nessa followed down the highway as they Impala pulled out of Huntington and she formulated her squirrely plan. Basically she had to actually meet up with the group at some point and become their official guardian. She was hoping to be closer to a command center though by then. Because it appeared that this group needed more protection then she could offer solo. After the first fight that she had witnessed she decided that her handler actually meant for her form of protection to involve bringing them to the largest Foci command facility that she could find.

So she was going to give them some limited space, keeping her eye on them until she had to actually involve herself. For now they were doing well taking care of themselves...so she thought.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Dean had tossed two bags in the car. One full of medical supplies to Ambre and one full of snacks at Sam's feet before silently climbing into the car and moving them quickly out of town and toward Huntsville.

Ambre had immediately busied herself by working on her own wound as Sam kept his head tilted back hiding just how bad he was hurt. Sam was hurting so bad that it was making coherent thought difficult at best. He had a hard time even finding the words to broach the subject of life and death with Dean let alone force his mouth to work.  
Ambre seemed intent to leave it to Sam though as she fervently worked to patch herself up. She seemed lost in her own thought. Trying to put the pieces of her downward spiraling life back into so form that made sense. It wasn't easy.

Dean had asked how everyone was when he got in the car and after receiving a wealth of various answers he had become drawn into his own silent thought. It wasn't until Ambre finished dressing her wound that things began to move forward communicatively.

"Sam, you have to talk to him." They were reaching that half hour mark that she had talked about, the one in which she didn't think he would wake up. Sam had been reluctant and Ambre hadn't realized until she began to goad him that it was because he was having trouble talking at all.

"Yeah." Sam forced the words out.

"What?" Dean looked to Ambre in the rear view mirror. He then cut his glance to Sam who lulled his head in Dean's direction. Dean quickly focused his gaze on the road again. "You two have a meeting while I was shopping?"

"Something like that." Ambre whispered.

Dean cut a glance at her in the rear view again before looking back to the road.

"We need to talk about this Dean." Sam whispered only his whisper wasn't because of some meek lack of speaking up for oneself. He was clearly having trouble speaking.

"Well I'm open to suggestions on places to start to try and remedy our current situation." Dean replied swallowing thickly as he chanced a glance of Sam out of the corner of his eye.

"Not about that." Sam coughed out. "About this whole you not letting anyone touch you...scared to heal thing."

"Oh that." Dean sniffed as he realized that things were far worse then he had let himself realize.

"Yeah that." Sam lifted his head and pulled the cloth that had been pressed up against his nose away. Dean cut a glance in that direction and gasped that it was now completely saturated in blood. It had been concealed enough before that he hadn't been able to tell how bad the bleeding was. Now more blood trickled from Sam's nose as he lifted his head.

"Oh God." Dean quickly pulled the car over as Ambre moved forward in the back seat.  
"Sam's dying." Ambre finally explained. She could have kicked herself for not realizing that he needed more help in getting that information across to his brother. "His brain is bleeding out." She frowned as Sam's fell back against the seat. "He needs you to heal him."  
"I...I can't...and the hospital is a half an hour behind us...God why didn't you tell me?!" Dean screamed as he reached reluctantly for Sam. "Sammy?" He asked as his head lulled back again and he gave him a blood coated smile. "Sam, you don't understand. The last thing I touched i drained the life out of it. I don't know if I touch you if I'll heal or kill you. We have to go back."

"There isn't time." Sam whispered. "I doubt they could have done anything even if we had. I knew...I'm dead either way. So it can't hurt to try."

Dean looked back at Ambre as the rage built. Why hadn't she spoken up? Why hadn't Sam? Why hadn't anyone told him? Why hadn't anyone told him before he had driven them half an hour into the middle of nowhere.

"Sam I... I can't control which happens...it's like playing Russian Roulette." Dean explained as he turned tearing eyes to his brother and held his hands up as if he didn't know what to do.

"Dean, just do it...it can't hurt to try." Sam gave him that same sad smile that said he had seen this coming from miles away.

"Sam..." Dean shook his head slowly as his heart tore in his chest from the thought of what could go wrong. Dean finally forced a nod and angled his hands in his brother's direction. He placed one hand on either side of Sam's head.

He looked back at Ambre who looked ready to cry herself as he then lowered his head and closed his eyes trying to concentrate. He had never really MADE it work. His abilities had just happened. Now he forced his focus and suddenly felt Sam's life force seeping into his hands instead of the other way around. 

Sam screamed arching off the seat and Dean pulled his hands away as if he had been snake bit looking wide eyed in terror as Sam sank against the seat going limp. Dean looked to Ambre in terror as he pulled as far away from Sam as he could, scared that his mere presence was going to draw the remainder of Sam's life. "Is he..."

Ambre jerked up between the seats as Dean jumped from the car to avoid touching her and stumbled against the side of the car in the gravel. Ambre quickly pressed her fingers to the side of Sam's throat and paused trying to find his pulse.

"Is he alive?" Dean's voice was a scream of fear as he looked back in the car to the pair sitting there.

Chapter Ten

Nessa saw the car pull over and slowed up. She pulled off a ways back and pulled out her cell phone. Something was wrong. The mention that breaking protocol was a - ok settled in her brain. She wasn't used to this much leisure as she opened the driver side door and watched in horror as the driver of the vehicle got out and screamed out asking if another of the passengers was alive.

She quickly hit a button on her speed dial.

"Hello." the voice was far too energetic for her this early in the morning.

"What's the closest Foci command center to Huntington, Mississippi?"

"I'm sorry." The perky blonde - she always pictured her as a blonde...she actually pictured her as that damned animated Barbie doll on Toy story. " I'm going to need your code please."

"I'll shove the code..." Nessa broke off with a sigh of frustration. " 4756291087815467298276346549284746." it seemed to take forever for the code to be spoken. Once it was finally out there though there was a perky giggle that Nessa scrunched up her face at.

"That's wonderful. Miss Nessa how may I assist you?"

"I just told you!" Nessa screamed into the phone. " I need the location of the closest Foci Command Center in relation to Huntington, Mississippi."

"Alrighty then." The perky voice seemed to smile at her. "I'll check on that right away for you." 

Nessa couldn't even drum up a thank you she was so ready to scream. She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited.

"That would be 15 miles due North at a small Amish Farm house...your transitory password should be Holen wald." The perky woman was going to make her death list. Nessa was sure of that. 

"Affirmative." Nessa managed as she began to stride in the direction of the Impala.

"Thanks so much. Ba- bye." Nessa was going to strangle her if she ever found her.

Nessa flipped the phone closed without so much as a goodbye.

Dean waited for Ambre's answer feeling the blood draining from his body. "Is he alive?" he choked out again.

Ambre looked back at him pulling her fingers from Sam's throat. "Barely." She whispered. "His pulse is thready."

"Wha..." Dean broke off and looked up as he realized that a red Convertible had pulled up some distance behind them and a woman dressed in white was walking toward the Impala. She had just flipped her phone down and he blinked as a shimmer surrounded her followed by the revealing of a large golden wing span. God, not now...not another attack. They couldn't take it. Dean reached for the pistol tucked under his shirt and drew it out as fast as he could.

Nessa watched as the gun came out and held up both hands as she continued onward. "Relax Cowboy."

"Ambre?" Dean asked not chancing a glance at Sam though he so wanted to.

"He's not going to last long like this." Ambre called back.

Dean cocked the gun not at all put at ease by the girls voice. "Who are you?"

"I was sent to protect you." Nessa called still holding her hands up. 

"Hell of job so far." Dean said in disbelief.

"Look I just got assigned. I just caught up with you." She replied cooly.

"Who sent you?" Dean called out quickly.

"The man with all the answers." Nessa shot back still holding her hands up as she unfurled her wings.

"Not much of an answer, but that's a nice wingspan...what are you?"

She smiled softly. "I'm a guardian. Look we can stand here and distrust each other all day. But you're buddy is dying and It just so happens I have a healer on retainer about 15 miles north of here."

"I don't understand...if someone wanted to help us why didn't they come out at the beginning of this? Why now...why should I trust you?"

"I didn't say I had the answers...and the only reason you should trust me is that your running out of options. I can help though...I swear." She was running out of things to say. Her knowledge on her charges was at a bare minimum this time and that left her with a hard place on getting into their good graces.

Dean looked from Sam holding his aim steady back to Nessa. "I'm driving." he said quickly. He handed the gun to Ambre. "Keep this pointed at her and shoot if she does anything weird." Ambre took the gun with a nod as Nessa scooted in the backseat with her.

Dean jumped into the driver seat and started in the direction that Nessa had indicated. 

Nessa immediately opened her cell phone. "I'm making a call." She said matter of factly glad that bullets had little effect on her should the girl get jumpy.  
Ambre sat there with the loaded gun looking fearfully from Sam's form limp against the seat and Dean who kept his attention divided between the rearview, the passenger seat and the road.

"I need that drop at the Amish stead 15 miles north from my current trajectory." She said quickly.

"I still need another hour." The guy on the other end replied in a rush.

"Make it fifteen minutes and I pay a million...you read me."

There was a pause...a short lived pause.

"Done." he called out and she smiled at the click that resulted from his end.

Dean spotted a gravel drive way that headed north a bit up the road. "This my turn?" He asked quickly.

"Yeah." Nessa called back rather calmly as she looked the occupants of the vehicle over. They were a wounded and winded bunch and they had a lot of road to cover yet. No one she protected was out of danger in less then a few weeks usually. That was generally enough time for everyone to get real comfy with each other.

Dean looked from Sam to the drive way as he drove like a bat out of hell. "Hold on Sammy." he whispered. The drive way ended near a barn and there was a host of old wooden out building and a few houses all scattered around the landscape. Dean gasped as he pulled the car to a stop. "There's a healer here?" he asked in disbelief. He had been so willing to go for that long shot but now he was almost begging Ambre to shoot the woman with the glare he sent her way.

"You want the boy to live or not?" She returned the glare feeling her patience truly tried by now.

Dean looked to Sam and tightened his jaw. His options just kept getting worse and worse. But if wishful thinking actually paid off then they might actually get some answers and his brother might live. "Come on." Dean climbed out the car and walked around to the passengers side without helping either woman out as he collected Sam. Dean pulled him over his shoulder as gently as he could before waiting for some direction for this seemingly ghost village before them.

Nessa climbed out behind him and looked the buildings over with narrowed eyes before spotting the one she wanted. This wasn't an Amish stead...not really. It had that feel. There were the people milling about, dressed like pilgrims from long ago...but there was something else beneath the surface. Nessa watched as Ambre climbed out still holding tenderly to her chest. Nessa wasn't about to baby her and offer a hand. She was here to be her protector not her friend. 

Ambre grabbed up the medical supplies and looked around the place surprised at the wealth of activity going on outdoors at this hour. People were working hard all over the place. Nessa strolled past her and Dean like she owned the place though and made her way right up to the front door of the largest house that stood in the center of the village.  
Nessa knocked on the solid door and smiled as an elderly woman answered with a soft smile. Nessa wasted no time on pleasantries. " Holen Wald." She said quickly. The woman only smiled brighter as she ushered the group into the house. 

Dean felt Sam's listless body's breathing letting up and broke into a rush as he entered the house. "Where are the healers?" He asked Nessa in desperation.

"Hold on cowboy." She smiled as the elderly woman walked to the fireplace and pulled one of the mantle pieces down. The large oak carved lion gave a groan as it plummeted down and the whole of the house agreed with the groan as it replied with it's own.

"Always a pleasure." The elderly woman said as she patted Nessa lightly on the arm and the staircase appeared where a fire had burned only moments ago. Nessa looked over her shoulder at Dean.

"This way...tell your buddy to hang in there just a few more minutes." 

"I don't know if he has that long." Dean breathed in exasperation as Nessa nonchalantly walked down the stairs at her usual saunter. She looked back one more time at the top of the stairs before she disappeared into the hole where the fireplace had been moments ago.

"We can hope." She replied and then was gone.

Dean and Ambre shared a concerned glance before Dean hefted Sam's body a bit and followed Nessa as fast as he could. Ambre smiled nervously at the elderly lady still waiting for her to descend before she walked into darkness.

Chapter Eleven

Dean shifted Sam's weight against his shoulder as he moved further down the dark stairwell. They had lost the light of day long ago and were now only shrouded in hazes of flame from the torches lit along the winding staircase that seemed to go forever downward. Dean had a bad feeling about all of this, but then nothing felt right since he had almost killed his brother. He told him...Dean felt a subtle shift from Sam and looked to his brothers face in the fire light. Dean couldn't mask the fear now. There was so much blood.

All Sam had to do was say something before they left Huntington. Dean glanced behind him at Ambre. She should have said something too. Still the look on her face in the car. Dean could tell she hadn't meant any harm, that she was clearly distressed. Even if he couldn't heal him...even if ...he could have held whatever it was that was hunting them off long enough for the doctors to patch Sam up. If he had just looked at Sam. Given him a real good look. If he hadn't been so lost in his own fear and trying to act like he wasn't scared to death...if he had just looked at him.  
Dean felt a tear slip past his defenses as he looked down at Sam now. "Just hang on." he whispered. 

Sam felt the haze come and go as he tried to hang onto the living world. He felt his body jostled against something as he felt consciousness move in and out of his grasp.  
Ambre walked into darkness and felt her way through the cold night before her trying to stay with the men that had broken her out of her personal hell and brought her into a world that she had never imagined existed. She had never wanted this, but they were all she had to hold to at the moment, and to Ambre that meant everything. The world around her felt so insane right now that she didn't know which end was up. The only thing grounding her were two men who she didn't really even know. Who she cared about on some level, but how close could you possibly get to someone who you merely lived with through what felt like war. She felt shivers race through her as the air down here took on a damp cold feel with a breeze that near took her breath.

Shay had been the one constant in her life of stress at the hospital. She had felt something break in her the moment he died, the moment she watched him die. Even if none of this had happened and she had never met Sam and Dean, She wasn't sure that she would have ever been able to go back to the ER...to work. Shay had pulled her through so many times. And she couldn't save him the one time that he needed her.

She was with good men now. She hadn't doubted that as they had been so quick to help her over and over mere hours ago, but now watching Dean look to Sam, Ambre knew. It was like some of the patients she had seen that ad been in a constant state of shock. Sometimes it was hard to peel back the layers that they laid over the exterior to insulate them from suffering more pain. Sometimes she felt like she was talking to a ghost of a person. But the truth was and she saw it in Dean at least...was that they were more caring then most people. That's why the layers existed at all. Because caring caused pain...lots and lots of pain. Sometimes it was easier to convince yourself not to give a shit.

Nessa walked through the darkness and came to the bottom step smiling slightly as she looked over the cobweb infested corridors before her. She turned left on instinct and started confidently in that direction.

Nessa bristled at the cool breeze the prickled through her wings realizing in one fell swoop that this maybe wasn't the course her higher ups had in mind. She frowned knowing the penalty for screwing up a job as she led the group into the hallowed halls of the Foci command center. 

It was a small room. With several bookshelf lined walls and many old men scattered around desks of books. They looked up as she walked into their midst. "I need a healer."

For once Nessa's voice betrayed the lack of confidence that wavered through her at the site of these men of reverence. They held her life in the balance and she knew it. A man rose slowly from his seat behind the desk and leaned heavily on his cane as his stooped over form began it's long rickety journey to meet them in the doorway. "You're very rude, Guardian." Most magus never addressed her by her name. It was beneath them. She looked to the floor. Etiquette dictated that action.

"I am sorry." She replied her voice much more respectful. "One of my charges is dying. He is only now barely holding to life. He desperately needs a healer."  
"And who are your charges?" he asked looking to Dean holding Sam and to Ambre who stood by his side. The elderly man seemed to think they had all the time in the world.

"The three that Alturoc hunts." Nessa said realizing that she hadn't really been introduced to them formally. Not really. She had picked up their names, but human names would mean nothing to this magus. Nessa raised her head as the man before her eye's widened in abject terror. She looked from him to where he stared at Dean, Sam, and Ambre and then back to him trying to put to reason why a magus would suddenly lose his calm. The old man dropped his can and turned to the three behind him calling out loudly in Latin.

"Holy hell." Nessa muttered.

"What's going on?" Dean asked his own eyes widening in fear from the reaction. All four of the magus in the room came at them in as much of a rush as they could and surrounded the group as they continued what sounded like wails of sorrow and chanting in Latin. They four magus began to seemingly herd them back into the corridor and then down into a small room with a bed and a simple table in the corner.

It wasn't until Dean had placed Sam on the bed that any of them spoke in English again. However, none of them spoke until they took a knee and bowed their head very low to the ground. "Our most humble apologies. Had we but known. Our greatest healer is at your disposal and is even now being summoned to this place. Anything that you need...simply ask and it will be given. We are here to serve." 

Nessa stood in the doorway with her mouth hanging open as she slowly folded her arms across her chest. She had never in her life see a magus bow. The most respect she had seen a magus show was to another magus and that was more like a handshake. Nessa got a glare from one of the ones on their knees and suddenly realized that she was supposed to be on her knees as well. She felt wholly off her game today.

Nessa didn't understand it at the moment, but she begrudgingly took to her knees and bowed her head down low. She was used to bowing...just not to humans. That was beneath her. 

Dean didn't understand it, but if it was going to get someone to help his brother faster then by all means let them bow. He could play along however they wanted, so long as Sammy lived. It was when he saw the guardian take to her knees that he narrowed his eyes. She seemed to have a real chip on her shoulder so far. Dean simply shook his head though and went to the bed to see to Sam.   
"Thank you all very much." Ambre said slowly not sure how to get them to their feet again as she watched Dean go to Sam. "We could use some food and drink."

"Beer." Dean corrected as far as drink went.

"As you wish." And like that they were on their feet and moving out of the room as quickly as possible. Nessa was pulled along with them leaving only Dean, Sam and Ambre in the small room.  
"What was all that about?" Ambre breathed as she looked from the door to Dean and Sam.

"I have no idea, but as long as they help Sam, I don't care." Dean met her eyes and saw the pain there. He seemed to acknowledge it as he looked back to his brother. Ambre stepped to Sam's side and let her hand roll over his throat once more this time more gently as she felt for his pulse.

"Sam told me what you guys do." Ambre didn't comment on what she felt beneath her fingers at Sam's throat. "How does someone get into something like that?" Her voice was almost a whisper out of respect for Dean's inner turmoil at the moment. Perhaps she could only draw a mere speck of his mind from his pain, but a mere speck sometimes made things more bearible. 

Dean looked up with a sad smile. Sam seemed better at explaining this sometimes. "Kinda born into it." he knew it wasn't much, but it was a lot more then most people got and he had a feeling that she knew that. "Our Dad was a hunter to."

"I'm sorry." She whispered as she looked back down at Sam.

"For what?" Dean narrowed his eyes ay her.

"You said was." She replied quietly.

"You're pretty quick." Dean followed her gaze down to Sam.

"Kinda my job." Her smile mirrored the sadness that had been in his a moment ago.

Dean looked to the door as a younger man in brown monkish looking robes walked into the room and instantly bowed down. Dean hurriedly got the man back to his feet hoping that he was the healer.

"Magus Hamilton at your service. I am the healer." he responded when Dean asked him what he was here for. Dean jumped and ushered the man to the bed as fast as he could.

"Here he is...make him all better." Dean sniffed and then stepped back to watch. He pulled his arms around his chest and brought one hand to cover his mouth as he waited for the magic to start working. Surely if this guy had abilities like his own he could have Sam patched up in no time.   
Hamilton sat down on the edge of the bed looking terrified to even touch him. When he finally did work up the nerve he placed a hand on Sam's forehead and began to chant softly as he lowered his head and closed his eyes. Dean watched a pained look cross Sam's face as the blood began to recede into his nose. Dean stepped forward hesitantly not sure if this guy was helping or hurting. Suddenly a tremble went through the man and the blood began to flow again.

Hamilton jerked and pulled his hand away panting as his skin glistened in a fait perspiration. He rose to his feet unsteadily and looked back to Dean white as a sheet. "I...I'm not strong enough." Hamilton slipped to the floor. Dean and Ambre both rushed forward, but only Ambre touched the man trying to see how he was doing. "Forgive me...Please grant me forgiveness." and with that he slipped into away.

Ambre looked to Dean in horror as she brought her hand away from the man's neck. "He's dead." She whispered. They both turned to Sam and rushed to the bed to see if he looked any better. Ambre felt for a pulse and brought her hand away in shock with a gasp. "So is Sam."

"What?" Dean's eyes widened in utter denial. "No..." 

Chapter Twelve

Alturoc smiled at the roaring and clanking masses before him. The large humanoid figures were a pale mix of blue and the peachy complexion of humans. Deep red tattoos marred their skin where is was visible between the chains. Hundreds of thick barbed chains hung from around their heads, their faces draped like armor, wound around their legs, their torso, and all along their arms the tiny chains that were wrapped around their wrists hung near to the floor with long dangling jagged pieces of flesh stripping metal at the ends.

The near naked figures whose bodies only coverings were the chains were snarling as they awaited their battle. The loved the fight. They loved to kill. And they usually made one hell of a mess. Alturoc saw the magus squadron take their place at the back of the ranks keeping their distance from the Broghna. Alturoc's second raised his hands with a cry that quieted the masses before them.

Alturoc stepped forward to speak. "Today, you will destroy the Foci Command Center near Huntington, Mississippi. There will be no survivors, their will be no mercy, kill them all. And with this action we sill start a war that will sweep the globe. And we...will...be...victorious!"

The crowd roared.

Alturoc's second quieted them again. "Now Magus...bring them to the fight." The Magus stepped forward and the chanting began. The magic was strong. It wound around the entire 200 strong army and engulfed them in radiant beams of red light and in a mere three minutes they were transported from the halls of Alturoc's keep to the field of battle. 

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Nessa walked into the kitchen and sank against the back wall wearily. They were gods... of course they were gods. That would have been a nice tid bit of information to have shared with her! Nessa kicked a crate of carrots across the floor and watched is busted high against the back wall getting a host of stares from the workers laboring to complete the food that the honored guests had requested. "What?" She snarled as she whirled around and stomped out of the room.

How the hell did they expect her to protect someone when she didn't know what was going on? Any other day of the week and she didn't have to know all the gory details. Give her a vicinity and a mark and she could protect them through thick and thin. This just happened to not be one of those circumstances. Nessa was livid. She had been humiliated, she had been reprimanded, she had been screwed. Things should have happened much differently.

She walked into the weapons room and looked over the medieval weaponry that resided there as well as the modern weapons. She was about to have herself a little work out when she remembered that her drop was due. She cursed under her breath and turned on her heels heading up the stairs two by two all the way up into the Amish kitchen . The elderly woman was washing a sink full of dishes and turned to give her a smile.

Nessa nodded respectfully as she heard the helicopter over head. Her smile returned as she thought of everything that she would be receiving. She ran out the door and ducked down at the drop point watching as the man in the chopper gave her a wave before setting the three crates down. He released the net and then flew away.

Nessa stepped up to the huge crates and put her hands on her hips. Some toys were so much fun. This was sure to lift her spirits. She picked up the first crate like it weighed as much as a sack of potatoes and heard a gasp from a farmer who read the 800 lb mark on the side. Her smile grew wider with a shake of her head as she carried the crate down to the weapons room. She returned for the other two.

She was standing in the kitchen about to descend the steps with the last crate when she felt it.

Nessa felt the tremor go through the floor through her thick boots and saw the elderly Amish woman pause from the corner of her eye. The dishes rattles along the sink top and the woman had to move quickly to keep a glass from striking the floor. Nessa slowly turned with the crate still in hand and looked out the window as the farmers in the fields screams reached her ears.

Her mouth fell open in awe in shock... "Oh God." She breathed and like that she was running as fast she could with the crate down the long stairwell to sound the warning. 

OOOOOOOOOOO

Dean looked to Ambre in disbelief as he ran his own hand against Sam's throat and felt for the pulse that should be there. That had to be there. His heart hadn't stopped...it couldn't have. They said they could heal him. They said...Dean's fingers fumbled over Sam's neck as he felt the tears of rage and sorrow ripped through is heart translated into heart pounding tremors that shook his hands. "No...no." he simply repeated as Ambre rose to her feet and back away.

Sam couldn't be dead. He couldn't...be... Dean felt the damn of pent up frustration and agony burst inside him as he shook his head his hands frozen on Sam's neck where no pulse greeted him...not even the slightest murmur of a heart beat. Dean sank forward as he pulled Sam into his arms feeling the tears fall over across his cheeks. 

He killed him...Dean had told him...he said it...he told him...and then these empty promises...How could he have believed them? How had his faith been so blind sided? He should have known better. They could have made it back to Huntington...to the hospital...he should have tried again. There were a million options that should have been swirling in a chaotic wave in Dean's head as the tears fell across Sam's face, where Dean had pulled his brother against him in the hug he had so many times joked about them not sharing. Dean's closed his eyes as the sob tore through his body shaking the both of them.

Ambre put her hand over her mouth as she felt the wall finally meet her back and she sank slowly down the stone, her own tears spilling over the sacred defense that had been held together with mere silly string ever since Shay had died. She tried to cover her own sob of grief with her tiny hand, but it didn't little to suppress it.

This couldn't be happening...could it? Ambre slammed her own eyes shut trying to shield herself from Dean's pain before her. Instead though Shay's image as the death blow was met greeted her in her minds eye and she opened her eyes again this time her bottom met the floor where she half fell half dropped her feet out from under her losing the crouch as her legs seemed to turn to Jell-O.

Dean's hand were running over the back of Sam's head through his brown hair as he cried and Ambre only sobbed harder at the sight. She felt a catch to her breath suddenly as Dean's seemed oblivious to a white glow that had surrounded his hands. Ambre's cries quieted as she watched in awe. His hands were getting so bright that she had to shield her eyes from the sight.

Dean felt something building inside him. God if he could just give Sam his life. He would trade it in a heart beat. This was his fault...he couldn't control his damn abilities. This was his fault. His hands began to feel like they were on fire and Dean finally opened his eyes to a room filled with white hot light. Dean couldn't stop it now though. It was like something had been started that he couldn't turn off. He felt it as soon as it began to flow through him. And Dean felt his lungs seize as the energy flooded through his fingers into Sam.

All at once Sam let out a gasp as he drew in a breath...the blood receded in a flash and Sam looked him straight in the eye in confusion and wonder. Dean felt himself draw in a shallow breath as it registered that Sam was alive...that he had somehow brought him back...a second was all the time he had for it to register though. "Sammy." Dean smiled in a gasp and then his eyes rolled into the back of his head and fell to the floor next to the dead magus.  
Sam felt like he had awoken with a jolt. He looked around in confusion starring down at his brother as he tried to force his addled brain to comply with any simple movement that would lend him to check on Dean. Ambre was already racing around the bed though.

"He's alive." She half laughed half cried as she felt a strong pulse from Dean. He was breathing evenly and seemed to have just exhausted whatever it was fueling his abilities. Before Sam could comment on that though Ambre threw her arms around him in a bear hug. "You're alive!"

"Yeah." Sam said in confusion wrapping his arms around her to return the hug.

"What's wrong with cowboy?" Nessa slid to a stop in the doorway of the room winded as she unfurled her wings fearfully. "Oh glad your feeling better." She nodded to Sam who only narrowed his eyes even more confused.   
"Thanks..." Sam began just as Ambre called out to Nessa in a rush. " Dean brought Sam back from the dead...I think he's just exhausted. The magus tried to heal him...but it killed him." 

Nessa seemed to take it all in with a nod as she quickly walked into the room and grabbed one of Dean's arms pulling him up and over her shoulder. She wasn't really sad for the dead healer...she had other priorities at the moment and her charges came first over everything. "That's sad, wonderful, and awe inspiring...it's time to get the hell out of here."

As if to drive the point home there was an explosion over head that rocked the underground facility with a resounding shudder. Everyone looked up as the dust flew from the corners of the ceiling. "What's that?" Ambre whispered as Nessa positioned Dean better over her shoulder.

"The last battle you'll ever see if we don't get out of here." Nessa replied as she began out the door pausing only once to make sure they were following. 

Chapter Thirteen

The corridors were crowding as men and women raced through the halls tossing armor and weapons across the expanse while others raced through trying to get to another vantage point. Somewhere in the chaos Nessa shouldered her way through the masses careful not to knock Dean in the head as she moved.

"We have to make one stop, first." She screamed to her group as Sam and Ambre followed behind her fighting their way through the people. Nessa stopped at the weapons room and kicked a magus out of the way in order to get to one of the crates that had been dropped off earlier. She knew one thing for sure, this was a war. Or it had just become one and in war her rules changed. Her loyalty to the Foci wasn't in question...it was her tactics and her complete disregard of etiquette to get the job done that truly became a whole other aspect of how she worked. She passed Dean's limp form to Sam and quickly jerked the lid off the box.  
She pulled out four bands of canisters and tossed them to Ambre who had to struggle to catch them all before looking from the objects she had just been tossed to Nessa questioningly. "Keep those close to you, Firestarter and don't pull the pins out unless I tell you too!"

Nessa moved to next crate and ripped the lid off as she pushed another person that was in her way out of it. She rifled through the box and pulled out an automatic rifle making sure that she tucked the shells into her pockets by the hand fulls. "Here ya go... Hey ...Sugar." Nessa waited for Sam to look up before she tossed him two pistols and eight clips. "Give one of those to Cowboy when he wakes up."

"They've already breeched the damn stairwell!" One of the Magus screamed out in anger a he ran through the corridors past the doorway. Nessa jerked her head up at that and looked the group over. "Get those spell filchers up there!"

"Time to go." Nessa pocketed a few more clips and grabbed Dean back up from Sam before making her way to the door. She looked the hall over both ways before stepping into the traffic and heading the opposite direction of the stairs.

Sam having just woken from his kiss with death was finding it hard to take all this in. It was like waking from a long nap where a person knew that they had missed some very important moments of truth. Unfortunately he didn't realize that Ambre and Dean were still very much as in the dark as he was.

"Aren't we going the wrong way?" Ambre called over the screams and noise all around them.

"Nope!" Nessa screamed back.

Nessa stopped suddenly at a locked wooden door to the right and kicked the whole thing in before looking winded to another long set of steps that descended into darkness. Another explosion rocked the compound and Nessa looked back toward the main stairwell in time to see a ball of fire sweeping down the corridor straight for them. 

Nessa had one hand free. She grabbed Ambre by the arm looking to the grenades slung over the girls shoulders and the flames that were coming toward them and instinctively slung her halfway down the stairwell away from the flames as she simultaneously stepped through the door shielding Dean's unconscious form against the next wall. She just hoped Sam had the smarts, and reflexes in his current state to follow into safety. 

Sam turned his head as the fire swept toward him and felt his breath catch in his throat, in that one moment of shock. Without the slightest hint of hesitation he stretched an arm outward and felt the power building inside him. The flames suddenly stopped rolling in their direction, like a great ocean wave of flame turned back by the tide. The fire then began to roll backwards and disappeared up the stair well that led to the Amish farmhouse. Sam looked to his hand in awe as a smile hinted at the corners of his lips.  
He could feel his power growing...and fast. It was like a turbulent storm building inside him. He stepped through the doorway as Ambre coughed and began to pick herself up from the steps and Nessa stepped away from the wall shifting Dean again. He turned his head only slightly as the clank of metal sounded close by.

Nessa seemed to bristle at the sound as she turned frightened eyes back to Sam. "Move." Her voice was a mere breath in the darkness as she nodded to Ambre and they began their frantic descent.

"Where are we going?" Sam called out as he felt along the wall to keep his bearings as they lost the last bit of light from behind them. He was tired of the endless retreat with no answers.

"There's an underground stream." Nessa called over her shoulder. " It flows through a cave system under this whole place. It should take us about a mile from this battle. And hopefully buy us enough time to escape."

"What are we escaping from?" Ambre picked up where Sam left off wanting answers too.  
"Chain devils...hundreds of chain devils." Nessa's voice mirrored the fear in her heart. "They're like a Demon Lords henchmen. Pretty high up. When all else fails they send them in, in droves. If they don't kill you by sheer voracity then their numbers usually do the trick. The point though is that Alturoc... the guy who is hunting you three. Just declared war on the Foci...the guy who's trying to protect you. So no matter how this ends...we're the refugees. The foci called me in to protect you guys not to fight his battles for him...so if you don't mind...I'd like to do my job and get you guys to safety."

"Why are we being hunted? I don't understand this...last night we were hunting them." Sam replied. The stone beneath his fingers had grown cold and damp. The whole of the air had a moldy musty smell to it.

"If you were already hunting them then Vanashi probably chose you to be the vessels." Nessa called back picking up their pace as a snarl resonated through the underground passage causing them all to look back but once before everyone hurried onward.

"Vessels? And I wasn't hunting anyone?!" Ambre wasn't making much sense of this. She heard a frustrated sigh escape Nessa as she continued on though.

"I don't know how or why he picked you, but the fact is that Vanashi released three powerful beings that no one really knows that much about...save what they've been able to gleam from years of cryptic ancient texts. As far as the Foci and all the magus left in this world knows. You three are the last of the old gods on earth. Or at least the vessels for them." Nessa heard the clanging footsteps coming down the stairs above them and felt her breath fall short as she realized that they might not make it to the stream before at least part of the battle caught up with them.  
"Gods?" Sam and Ambre called out at once before following Nessa's gaze back up the spiraling staircase and the stone that incased it as the firelight from above began to illuminate the passage once more. Everyone seemed to realize that question and answer time was over.

"Be with us." Nessa breathed as if the question to the word hadn't been there. "Time to wake up, Cowboy." Nessa set Dean up against the wall and gave him a hard slap as Sam moved forward protectively.

"Hey." Sam started as Dean's head slowly lulled forward betraying just how far gone he was. The slap hadn't even seemed to disturb his slumber. Nessa cursed under her breath. Sam pulled out one of the pistols that Nessa had thrown him and readied it to fire as Nessa pushed Dean down behind her down the last step and watched as he rolled to Ambre's feet. She held both hands forward and pulled the pistols from her wrist straps.

"We've just got to buy enough time to get to the stream." She reasoned out loud. The first chain came into view before the devil came down behind it and it slammed into the stone incasement spraying bits of rock off from the force of the contact with the stone. Sam ducked the first strike and threw himself against the stone below arching his gaze up the stairwell catching a glimpse of the beast before he opened fire around Nessa.  
The first one went down under the barrage of gun fire as Nessa instantaneously opened fire seconds after Sam. Sam felt his powers reaching a chaotic crescendo inside him as the footfalls increased creating a cacophony of metallic sound against the stone steps. The next chain didn't miss as it slammed into the side of Nessa's temple and the barbed probe drove itself into her skull slamming the whole of her form into Sam against the stone. She screamed as she opened fire again.

The beast followed his appendage around the corner and snarled with a cocky smile that was hard to see from the sheer amount of chains that hung over his face. Nessa dropped one of her guns and grabbed the barb embedded in her skull just as the beast yanked the chain. He pulled her form to him with one deft fluid movement. Nessa screamed again as she unfurled her wings to try and use them to keep him from getting his hands on her. The wing span wedged her into the stair well blocking Sam's view of the devils before them.

All he could see were her feet. Suddenly she leveraged the whole of her body on her wings as her feet picked up and she slammed her legs into the devil kicking hard off the monster. The force of the kicked ripped the barb out of her head as it sent the beast flying back wards. Nessa rolled backward as they separated and her body slammed into Sam's throwing them both the remainder of the way down the steps.

Thunder and metal shook the steps as they realized that the whole of the complex had been over run and this wasn't a simple case of only a few having broken through the front lines. Nessa pulled herself to her feet with a growl as Sam rushed around her picking himself off the floor. He held his hand forward and felt the devils slam against an invisible barrier that he had suddenly erected before them on the stairs.

Nothing seemed able to penetrate it.

Nessa touched her hand to her head as she saw the sudden turn of events and she whirled to find that damn passage before Sam's strength waned. Nessa scanned the stones in the darkness and found where all the dampness seemed to coalesce. She crouched down and felt the wetness before growling against and driving her fist through the stone. She screamed bringing back a blood coated mass of broken fingers and dropped to her bottom before slamming her feet through the remaining stone.

A blast of cool air met her triumphant smile as she peered into the black hole before her. She looked back over her shoulder seeing the perspiration gleaming from Sam's forehead and grabbed Dean first. Nessa pushed him down the hole and listened as it seemed to take forever before she heard the splash that resounded from the void.

"Come on!" She screamed at Ambre as Sam put his other hand in the air seemingly drawing on a well store of power to hold the devils at bay, yet finding himself hard pressed to make this ability withstand the tests of strength and time. Ambre started in that direction as three of the chains whipped past Sam's defenses.

The fleshing ripping barbs wrapped around Ambre's middle and sank deep into her abdomen as she was wrenched backward and the whole of her body slammed into Sam's psychic barrier. Nessa jumped to her feet looking from the whole where she had just tossed Dean to the fight now becoming a problem at her back.

"No!" Sam screamed as Ambre seemed near sliced in half by the force of the impact. Blood trickled from her mouth as the flames licked at her hands and she looked to her chest where she had secured the grenades.

"Go." Ambre whispered suddenly as if somewhere in her mind she had made a decision.

Nessa's eyes widened when she saw the flames so close to the grenades. "Ambre!" She screamed in horror as Sam's barrier weakened even more and Ambre's body disappeared into the tangle of chains behind her. Nessa didn't give Sam a chance to react as she grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him down the hole behind Dean. She looked back once knowing that the whole place was going to come down on top of them if those grenades went up. 

Nessa swallowed the knot in her throat as she looked up into the tangled mass of bodies and chains and saw a fireball go up as Ambre's whole body burst into flames. Nessa cursed and jumped down the hole behind Sam.

She tucked her wings next to her body as the explosion...greater then anything they had felt so far rocked the remainder of the compound undoubtably tearing it to the foundation as flames expanded down through the hole nearly all the way down the 60 foot drop to the swiftly moving water below. 

Chapter Fourteen

Dean felt the slap of the water and woke as the rush of water carried his body at break neck speed for the nearest natural corridor. The water level was so high that his head slammed repeatedly into the ceiling of the corridor as he tried to stay afloat long enough to draw in a complete breath. It was a hell of a way to wake up.

He couldn't make heads or tail of what had transpired to bring him to this point, but survival instincts overrode his naturally inquisitive nature. He flailed to the top again as the force of the water drove him under it's clutches repeatedly.

Dean slammed into a wall and cursed inwardly as he heard A cry from behind him. "DEAN!" Dean turned his head as Sam's voice screamed out behind him and flailed to the top of the water again.

"Sam!" Dean screamed back at him unable to fight the current in which his body was moving. He ducked past low hanging rock and fought his way upward again only to come into contact with solid rock and not enough room to get in a breath. Dean's hands hit the ceiling in a panic as he soared along with the current. He could have counted the second in which there seemed no reprieve from the water's barrage until suddenly he was falling, choking on a lung full of water, and flailing wildly through the sudden daylight that reflected from the pool of water that he was swiftly coming to meet.

He hit the water feet first and immediately swam upward breaking the surface as he sucked in a huge lung full of air and looked up in time to see Sam flying out of the cavern wall towering high above the water...where water shot out of the cliff hanging. Dean took in measured breaths as he coughed up the rest of the water and watched as Nessa came soaring out behind Sam.

He waited there a moment waiting for one more figure to come barreling out of the cave. When it didn't happen he quickly scanned the pool for Ambre. Dean finally blinked a few times still trying to steady his breathing as Sam popped up to the surface choking. Dean swam in that direction as Nessa hit the water.

Dean wrapped his arm around Sam and felt his brother's body shudder from the cold - the exhaustion, and the lack of air. "You alright?" Dean asked finally able to be thankful that Sam was alive.

Sam shook his head still coughing as they made their way to the shore.

The three of them dragged their battered bodies onto the bank and lay there for a long time without speaking, all of them panting and dragging in breath as the smoke lined the horizon. It was Dean who forced out the first question. "Where's Ambre?" His voice was low as if he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that question. 

There was a long moment of silence as Nessa and Sam looked to the smoke. Sam slowly sat up to have a better look propping his hands up beside him to hold his body up against the weight the water had added to his form. Sam met Dean's eyes slowly and the unspoken words there caused Dean to swallow and look away to the smoke as well.

Dean pulled himself up beside Sam. "What happened?" Dean's voice rose a bit over a whisper as Nessa pulled herself up as well. It seemed to be an eternity before anyone spoke.

"Alturoc sent his devils after the command." Nessa whispered pulling her broken hand into her chest as the bones began to mend themselves. "After you."

"We were running." Sam added unable to tears his gaze from the rising smoke behind the cliff wall. "I had some kind of wall up...keeping them back, but they broke through." 

"I'm going to need something that actually resembles sanity for this to make sense." Dean said quickly reminding them that he hadn't been awake for all of this. Nessa went through her explanation again about what was hunting them and why. And why she was sent to protect them before Sam recanted the battle and Ambre's death.

Dean sat there propping his hands up on sprawled knees as he took in a deep breath after all the explanations had been shared. "I'm not a god." he finally said. "Neither is Sam. Neither...was...Ambre." No one interrupted him as the rage building from a full days worth of confusion and unanswered questions surfaced in Dean's voice. "I've never heard of Alturoc...or the Foci. And we're not supposed to be in the middle of this. Sammy wasn't supposed to die because of this...and neither was Ambre."

"Listen." Nessa let out a sigh in the first tone that didn't resemble placation since she had met them.

"No." Dean cut her off. "You listen. I can follow orders when I respect the chain of command. But you people are nothing to me. And if you expect me to roll over and follow your plan without more concise answers then this is how it is then you are deluding yourself. Now if you truly believe that we are what you think we are...then it's time for you to listen."

"Dean," Sam started but Dean shot him a look that quieted him quickly.

"We have our own limited resources...and so far all you've managed to do is get two of our people killed." Dean replied quickly to Nessa. "Your command...your tactics...their not working. I'm through playing some game that I never signed up for. Now you call whoever you need to and tell them to back the hell off."

"It doesn't work that way." Nessa spoke up anger working its way into her voice as well.  
"Then make it work that way!" Dean screamed back. "We're walking...and we're doing it our way. You can come with if you really want to. But from here on out this is our show...and you tell whoever the hell you need to that."  
The silence and tension that followed only mounted as everyone pulled themselves t their feet.

Sam was the first to speak after that. "It's been what...18 hours since we drove into Huntington?" Sam asked quickly as he noticed the sun rising high into the sky. Dean nodded as he rung his shirt out and shook the water from his hair. "They've already attacked three times..."

"Four. They attacked Ambre before they even got to us." Dean corrected him.

"Right." Sam frowned at the mention of her name. "So we should have a few hours before the next attack...how are they tracking us? I don't think it's through Nessa and who she works for." Sam reasoned out. 

"Scrying." Nessa replied quickly. "It's how we located you too. They probably already know where we are." 

"There had to be a way to become untraceable." Dean nodded.

"The Magus were working on a spell before the place was destroyed." Nessa whispered. "It would have made you undetectable. They were scared to use it I think. They wanted to know where you were as much as the enemy does."

"Why?" Sam looked up at that and met Nessa's eyes narrowing his own.   
"The Foci thinks of you guys as the second coming. He want you to fight for him." Nessa's voice fell.

Sam scoffed in disbelief as he shook his head. Dean came up along side him. " He's got a lot of nerve."

"A hell of a nerve." Dean agreed. "Who the hell decided that we were going to do anything for them? All that's come from this is one fight after another...that's nearly killed us over and over. Sam did die and now Ambre... What the hell does this Foci think we're going to do for him?"

"Turn the tide." Nessa said evenly.

"Turn the...Turn the..." Dean laughed out in frustration. "This isn't even our fight!" Dean suddenly started back toward the cliff looking for a way back the way they had come.

Nessa quickly followed after him and Sam who had taken a place at Dean's side matching his pace. "Where are you going?"

Dean paused turning to face her. "To find Ambre. If she's still in one piece then I can bring her back. Then we're going to get that spell worked out ourselves...we know some people who I think can make it work...and after that...we maybe stay alive long enough to come up with a bit of a better plan."

"You can't do this." Nessa screamed in frustration.

"Watch us." Sam called over his shoulder not caring if she followed or not. 

Chapter Fifteen

Sensations returned in myriads of pain. Pain and a need for air. The smoke was thicker then night and her ability to breath in pockets of fragmented chain had become hit or miss. Ambre pushed past the shrouded disjointed thoughts and felt a body move over hers. Her body felt as if it had been torn into pieces and no matter how she moved she couldn't force it to comply with deft action. She felt the tears against her cheeks but they sizzled where they fell and fueled the fire burning around her. 

There was a part of her that wanted it to be over. Shay's death, the endless fights, the horribly uncomfortable explanations, the whole world that had been slowly turned on it's head and spun without cessation. Her mind had been a growing whirlpool of chaos since this had begun and now nothing seemed to ease the pain that senselessness left her in, senselessness and grief. The combination was horrifying.

Ambre gave a groan and shoved the arm that had fallen over her throat off. It took entirely too much effort for such a simple action. Ambre closed her eyes and coughed against the smoke again. She shifted in the smoke induced night and pulled herself past another set of barbed chains and disembodied appendages climbing a ladder of dead devils...chain devils...that's what Nessa had called them. She paused a moment finding another pocket of air. Dying would have been so much easier. Why she felt the need to go one was beyond her.

"You can do it." A soft female voice whispered in her ear. Ambre turned to see who was there stuck in this massive assemblage of broken bodies trying to claw her way out with her. She instantly closed her eyes though as the smoke burned her eyes again.

"Who's there?" She whispered as she then choked on the next breath.

"I'm not much to you now...but I can see that you truly do want to live." The voice replied steadily. "You can do it."

"Who..." Ambre pulled herself up a bit farther and sank against a barb that almost burrowed into her naked flesh. Her clothes had all incinerated in the fire.

"I'm within you." Ambre's head fell. Great - she had a concussion. She was hearing voices. She was delusional. She let out a sob. Maybe the whole thing was just a dream. Some night mare that she couldn't wake up from. Shay could be at home right now...she coudl be in some sort of feverish sleep...who knew...it made more sense then this.

Ambre broached the surface and felt the fires that burned all around. She had made it to the edge of the crater. And every where for a depth of stories below her were bodies...smoldering bodies. This had to be the dream...

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Dean kept his arm draped over his mouth and nose the closer they got. The smoke was burning his eyes so bad that they were watering from the irritation. They had been passing bits of chains and bodies for a long while...showing just how extensive the explosion had been. Every now and then they found a live one and whoever could get to it first killed it.

Dean was past being compliant...past trying to make sense out of something that was clearly not going to add up completely on it's own and so far what he did know was enough to make him want to bash something to pieces. These people...Magus...Foci...whatever they were. They had just thoroughly trashed what was left of their lives. It was like having their souls sold without their consent. Dean swore he was going to make this right somehow...and if he couldn't make it right, then he was going to kill whatever screwed it up. 

As if they didn't have enough to deal with...Oh they had plenty. Sam was on some path to becoming only God knew what with his powers. The demon that had killed their Mom, Jess, and for all intents and purposes, their Dad was still out their making it's own plans. And they had just been sold up river into a whole other battle that should have never involved them. Dean was thankful for the powers that he possessed in a way, but for the most part they had done more then good...except saving Sam.

There was a moment of guilt because knew he shouldn't be thankful for his gift and furious of it at the same time. Still the mixed emotions were there and he wasn't saying that it wasn't a nice turn in their favor to have new abilities...but like everything the price was becoming painfully evident.

Dean broke through the smoke and nearly tumbled over the edge of a huge crater as he came upon what was left of the Farm stead. As the smoke began to clear around them he and Sam both froze taking in the scene before them with a gut wrenching mouth opened awed moment.

The crater was enormous. And inside it...Dean thought he was going to be sick. He covered is mouth and gagged before momentarily turning away from the carnage below. It looked as if someone had filled a bowl with entrails...and all that went with them. Like 200 hundred beings had been turned inside out and were laying in pieces at the bottom of this hole. The bodies were piled high along with the debris and some where in the middle of it A lone figure sat huddled her legs drawn to her chest, her naked body covered in the muck below them.

It took him a long time to spot her slowly rocking form. Dean looked into the crater and to where Ambre sat and tried to find a way across to her as he kept his hand over his mouth and tried not to look into the mess below them too closely.

"I'll go." Nessa's had been quiet during most of the walk. Now her voice actually betrayed a moment of emotion as she took to the air and flew in Ambre's direction. Nessa had seen a lot of war in her life and this was truly a battle field. One of the worst she had ever seen. The naked figure in the center of it caused her heart to skip a beat. For all the hardness that Nessa put on for the world. She really did care. When Ambre didn't respond to her she scooped the woman up into arms and flew the both of them back to the side of the crater. 

Dean was already pulling his soaked shirt over his head as he knelt down beside her. "See if you can find something to cover her... that isn't soaked." He whispered to Sam and Nessa looking up with angry tears in his eyes. He wasn't mad at Nessa or Sam or even Ambre just that this had happened at all. They weren't the gods that everyone seemed to want...they were human and everyone had their breaking point.

Sam turned with Nessa and began to scour the grounds for anything that they could use as Dean gently cleaned the blood from Ambre's face. "Ambre?" He asked when she gave him little more response then to draw her legs up further. "Ambre?" he caught her chin and turned her eyes up to meet his. 

There was a glimmer of recognition a spark of hope in her eyes. "This is a dream...isn't it?" Her face seemed to crumple as she finally whispered the words out. Dean felt his heart squeezed as he watched her. He wished it was...he didn't know how she survived...but for all their sake he wished it was just some nightmare that they could all just wake from.

"No." He shook his head. The news seemed to sink in with a sob and Dean looked up just as Sam walked back with a torn blanket that he was shaking out. Sam stepped forward and wrapped it around her shoulders. Dean nodded his thanks.  
"How bad are you hurt?" Dean couldn't tell from the blood that covered her. When she didn't answer he simply pulled the blanket tighter around her and pulled them to there feet careful to the pull the blanket up around her in his arms. He paused there as she lay her head against his chest shielding her vision from the carnage around them as he turned to Sam starring over the edge at the black metal that glistened from far below.

"I don't think we're driving out of here." Sam swallowed thickly as Dean followed his gaze to the remains of the Impala.

"Nessa has a car down the road." Dean replied without missing a beat. He gave the car a long hard look and turned in the direction of the road. "We've only got a few hours." he reminded Nessa and Sam solemnly as he carried Ambre in the direction of the car still on the side of the road a few miles away. "We need to make good time." 

Chapter Sixteen

The cold tendrils of darkness engulfed the landscape as he stood at the precipice overlooking the battle. The demon was cloaked in the nightmares of a thousand dead, shrouded in shades of gray and skinless withered ages of a black heart that no longer beat within his chest. He was fuming. Beating a barrage of commanders for their failure as he still screamed for others to do his bidding. He was exhausting the resources already set aside for this endeavor. 

When at last they all left him he stood in a cold dismal throne room sinking into his chair made of bone and blood, built on the lives of the innocence before him. They had left him on his behest. And still he sat brooding over his failure.

A lone figure stood with his back against the wall his form gaining substance as the last commander left the would be king to ponder his next move. The monster sensed the angel within seconds, though he betrayed with neither movement nor play of emotions. He leaned his head back against the boney chair and stared straight ahead.

"You can't defeat me." His voice was like a disease. It set the ears to ringing and the delicate organs trembling. "More will come."

"We'll fight them." Sam replied stepping off the wall an uneasy calm falling over him despite the ooze of blackness that had fallen over him as soon as he stepped into the room.

"You'll lose...everyone loses eventually." Alturoc finally looked to the human in his midst.

"Even you." Sam replied coldly. Alturoc smiled in the red blood hues of the lantern light around him.

"This is one war you have no hope of winning." Alturoc, despite his failing knew that he had the resources to bring this world to it's knees.

"Maybe not before." Sam nodded as the beasts thoughts seemed to float through veils of magic into his head. "But you're terrified that you underestimated what we are."

Alturoc almost betrayed a flinch as he realized that the boy had read his mind. So well guarded were his thoughts that no mere human should have been able to get through. And even with the powers of these wasting gods these mortals should never have been able to gain so much so fast. This one was different. "You're the one that Roshnahi wants."

Sam stiffened as Alturoc craned his horrid visage and met Sam's eyes. "I'm going to let him have you." Alturoc rose to his feet. "You should wake...he's coming."

A thundering footstep sounded through the walls and Sam felt his calm melting through his fingers as he stepped back against the wall planning on doing just that. Alturoc laughed. "He'll be there soon."Alturoc moved in the blink of an eye and was standing inches from Sam. His acidic breath burning the man's delicate senses. "Will you know him?" 

Sam stood paralyzed against the wall willing himself to wake.

"Oh yeah...you'll know him. He's so close that he makes every molecule ache within you. You'll know him." 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Nessa propped her arms up against the ice machine and felt her muscles protest. She had never been in this position before. Not really. Not without some measure of control. Not without some form of concise plan of action. The boy had been right though. The Foci's tactics were failing...and so were hers. 

Everything was falling apart around them and no one seemed strong enough to handle it. Not even her. She gave the machine a kick and growled. They made it to Huntsville on a wave of sleep deprived rambling and screaming as Ambre had nightmare after nightmare. It had been a miracle that the human law had not gotten to the car before they had...and even more extraordinary that they had not been pulled over on their way to Huntsville.

Huntington's response time was slow. That was the only thing in their favor at the moment it seemed. Now they were at least out of the woods for that. Nessa knew that the humans wouldn't see the gore when they got there. It would be shrouded by the veil...that oh so sensitive barrier that kept what was magical from being seen. It would still be devastating, but near on the level that the four of them had witnessed.

The national media was already saying that the United States had suffered a similar fate to Tunguska in 1908. Nessa had laughed an uneasy laugh at that. They thought some cosmic event had occurred. They had a near catatonic woman in a room two doors down though that would disagree.

Nessa had given her some clothes from her own limited stash in the trunk and helped get her cleaned up in the room. Dean seemed to have gotten over his fear of his abilities and had healed her soon after. They were all gaining control of their abilities and confidence at a frightening speed. It unnerved Nessa. More because with the abilities they had...they could over throw the Foci...and she didn't know where any of these political ramifications could possibly lead.

Nessa pulled out her cell phone and stared at the pad for a long moment before she dialed the number. She held it to her ear as a tremble went through her fingers.

"Yeah." a male voice said over the receiver.

"I have what you lost." She breathed quickly. There was a pause.

"Where are you, Nessa?"

"A half hour on the outskirts of Huntsville, Alabama. To the East." She whispered.

"Are they safe?"  
"Not for long." Nessa felt like she had just betrayed two hundred unflinching years of loyalty in the matter of half a minute.

"We're on our way." The click mirrored the hammering of her heart as it echoed in her ears before she closed the metallic object. 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

_"Will you hold me?"_

He knew that she needed the sleep. He had agreed with the pain laced request after Nessa had gotten her out of the shower swaddled in a the bathrobe that the guardian had requested from the front desk. Dean felt Ambre's body shudder against him betraying the latest nightmare in the last line of nightmares that had begun to torment what was left of her mind. He secured his arm around her tighter as he combed the darkened hotel room with a sad sigh.

They had needed the sleep. All of them. Twenty four hours of hell had left them in fractured pieces of their former selves leaving them questioning everything they ever thought they knew. Dean had called Ben Joiner in Chattanooga and set up a time to meet with him and his group about the spell that was going to mask them all under the radar. But in the mean time...threat of the next battle or not...they needed the rest.

Dean's gaze fell on the remainders of their first meal in what felt like ages on the small table before him and contemplated getting another slice of pizza, but Ambre rolled over and blinked at him in the darkness before his thought could come to fruitation. It seemed as if her green eyes had been glassed with tears since the moment they found her in that crater, her mid section near shredded the lacerations so extensive yet so well masked that it was no wonder she was delusional. She had called him Shay a few times after waking from her nightmares in the car.  
"Hey." Dean whispered glancing at Sam's sleeping form in the bed over from them hoping that he didn't wake him.

"Hey." She whispered. "How long have I been out?"

Dean looked to the clock over the table. "Forty - five minutes."

Had it only been that long? Nearly an hour since she had woke screaming again? Dean felt his own resolve wearing thin. The anger helped. Ambre needing them all - that helped. It helped to drive a wedge against his own fear and weariness - gave him reason to soldier on. 

"How you feel?" Dean let out a breath when she snuggled closer under the covers needing the human contact to stay sane.

"I don't know." She whispered against his chest. "Scared."  
"I think that's healthy about now." Dean smiled down at her softly trying to ease the tension a bit. He felt a tensioned shudder of a laugh escape her and smiled a bit broader glad to see anything in her eyes but the pain he had seen when they had found her. 

"Speaking of healthy - Is there any pizza left?" She inched her head up and looked to the table. Dean looked over to the large box on the tiny table and nodded - glad that he wasn't the only one still starving.

"I think there are a few drinks too." He gave his eyes a good rub pulling his arm away from her for the first time in what seemed like an hour and a half. Dean tossed the covers back and made his way over to the small frig next to the table as Ambre sat up in the bed wrapping her arms around her protectively.

Sam sat up with a groan as Dean rose to his feet with two drinks in hand. Dean paused a moment as Sam sat there in the darkness blinking as if trying to remember something before Sam looked to him as he tossed the covers back. "You get me one?" Sam asked as he got to his feet with a yawn and a stretch.

"Sure." Dean smiled. He reached back into the frig and grabbed another drink tossing one to Sam before he carried the other back to Ambre. "We're about to eat again...I think there are four slices left."

"Oh great." Sam plopped down in the chair before the box of pizza and pulled the top of the box open gazing at the pizza before him. He selected his piece and quickly began to devour it. "This was a good idea."

"I recall someone was against it." Dean replied evenly as he walked over and got himself and Ambre a slice. 

"Well ya know at the time we had just been near blown up and the law was out everywhere. Keeping to the road didn't seem like that bad of an idea either." Sam rebutted.  
"Yeah." Dean agreed. "But pizza just sounded better."

Sam smiled in the dim lit room and took another bite. Ambre gave a small laugh from the bed as she took the drink and pizza with a smile.

"I think this is the best pizza I've ever had." Sam gulped down a drink from the soft drink as he looked over the room and finally realized that one of the group was missing. "Where's Nessa?"

"Went to get ice." Dean replied quickly. "I think she's still pissed at me."

"You didn't exactly go easy on her." Sam nodded as if it was no big deal.  
"And you would have?" Dean asked in disbelief as he sank back down into the bed next to Ambre and began to eat his own slice.

"No." Sam laughed again. Dean chuckled with a shake of his head at the agitated mirth that resonated through the room. "I think if you hadn't set her straight that it would have been me."

"Then she was bound to be pissed at someone." Dean's laughter died away as the door opened and Nessa walked back into the room with her bucket of ice. "Speak of the devil."

Nessa paused and looked around the smiling group in surprise. "What?"

"We were just talking about you." Sam called over his shoulder with a mouth full of food.

"I'm thrilled." Nessa replied dryly. "You look better." Nessa said to Ambre quickly.

"Then what?" Ambre laughed softly still feeling a bit of the anxious giggles from the mood they had set.

Nessa set the ice down and smiled. "I can't believe you guys can be so...chipper right now."

"Would you rather us be standing by the window waiting for the next attack?" Dean asked before nonchalantly taking a drink.

"I would rather us be in the car driving to this place you want to get to." Nessa replied her smile waning into her usual serious expression.

"We've already had this discussion...just a moment ago in fact." Dean shifted against the bed trying to catch a pepperoni before it slipped through his grasp and landed on the sheets. He caught it and cast Ambre a mischievous grin getting another laugh out of her before he popped it into his mouth.

"Oh?" Nessa placed her hands on her hips waiting for an explanation.

Sam turned in his seat chewing on the crust at one end, the piece still hanging from his mouth. "We decided on pizza."  
"We're all gonna die." Nessa muttered under her breath as she sauntered over and grabbed a drink out of the refrigerator before plopping down across from Sam and grabbing the last slice of Pizza.

"I would say not more then once." Sam betrayed he had heard the muttering as he took another drink. "But I guess that's not always true."

Dean chuckled softly not really ready for the reminder that Sam had already died once...almost twice in the last 24 hours. "Not anymore." Dean said it with a smile hell bent on keeping the mood light. "So Nessa how does a girl with your wingspan get into this sort of field?" Dean called from the bed trying to make light with the conversation.

"I was born into it." She replied while chewing on her own first bite. "Guardians don't get a whole lot of options, or at least not back then."

"Back then?" Sam opened the box back up and stared with a frown into the empty recess. "I'm ordering another one."

"Oh could you get olives on it this time?" Ambre sat up straighter in excitement.

"And sausage." Dean spoke up with his own mouth full.

"Anyone else?" Sam asked as he picked up the phone.

Everyone looked to Nessa who was swallowing the last of her bite and she likewise looked around at all the eyes that had settled on her. " Mushrooms." She finally laughed out.

"Why don't we just make it a supreme?" Sam paused as he dialed.

"As long as the onions aren't on there it's fine by me." Ambre nodded

"Nah I don't want the peppers." Dean shook his head and accidently slung a pepperoni at Ambre. It hit her square on the cheek. She froze as Nessa snorted on her drink and had to grab a napkin to keep it from spewing out her nose.

"Did you just snort?" Dean coughed in laughter. Nessa was laughing so hard all she could do was nod as Sam finished making the call. "There is hope for you yet."

Sam hung up the phone and looked back at Nessa " So you said back then...when did you get into this?"

"Uh." Nessa blew out a long breath after finally getting control of herself. It felt so good to laugh. "1797. I was fifty. It was time for me to learn the trade." She shrugged. 

"You're kidding?" Dean narrowed his eyes. "So your like over 200...wow."  
"It's not that uncommon. Most things people see as human have been around a while. The only reason you can see me for what I am is the power you have lets you see through the veil."

"The what?" Ambre asked as she picked the pepperoni off her face and didn't even think before she ate it getting another smile from Dean.

"The veil...it's this magical barrier that keeps things without any magical aptitude from seeing what lies beneath the surface." Nessa explained as if it was common knowledge.  
"What about ghosts and spirits...people see them all the time...or their effects at least in most cases." Sam walked back to the table and sat down getting a drink. He was truly intrigued.

"Ghosts aren't magical. In fact most of what you guys hunt aren't. And even the stuff that is...most monsters have some ability to disguise what they are, and there are a whole host - magical and un magical that choose not to live behind the veil." Nessa spoke quickly as if she too was excited to be sharing something that they didn't know. Like she still had some purpose to be here. "The Foci has rules though so anything not hiding is generally ostracized."

"Why the need to hide?" Dean looked down at the last bit of crust in his hand his only comfort being that more pizza was on it's way before he popped it into his mouth.

"It's a long story." Nessa sat back stretching her arms over her head.

"I think we have time." Ambre spoke up still taking small bites as she savored her own slice. She at least hoped that had time.

Nessa looked from Dean to Sam to see if they wanted her to go on and finally shrugged as she placed her hands back on the table. "There was a war...a really long time ago. It's not recorded in human history. There was a lot of magic used. The gods were showing off...showing out...being brats. They destroyed most of themselves and most of the magical weave that everything magical draws life from. There were only three gods reputed to have lived and that was only because they contained their life force in some sort of vessel and sort of hibernated. At any rate...the world eventually healed itself and so did the weave."

"So the three gods we're supposed to be?" Dean cut in as he followed along.

Nessa nodded. "The very."

"When the weave healed itself. The magical beings that returned fell under the Foci's rule. It wasn't long though...centuries maybe. That beings seeking power came back. There was a group that split off from the Foci...didn't want to follow his rules and hide and they sought to find a way to defeat Alturoc however they could. It was there leader...Vanashi...that found the vessels and released them back into the world. Into you three."

"You know if I could just..." Dean held his hands up like he was choking someone.

"Relax he's dead. The ritual killed him." Nessa nodded.  
Ambre sat back and took another drink growing quiet.

"Ok change of subject." Dean said as he noticed the change in demeanor. Before they could change it though Sam suddenly grabbed his head as the lights began to flicker on and off. "Or not." Dean sighed as he slowly rose to his feet along with Nessa and Ambre. "Sam?"

Chapter Seventeen

Dean raced across the room and knelt beside Sam as the lights continued their dance on and off. "Sam." Dean grabbed his brother by the shoulders and pushed him back so that he could have a look at him just as Sam opened his eyes.

Dean didn't mean to gasp. He had seen some pretty freaky crud in this line of work. Most of it he had hunted - killed - or both. He generally tried to be strong and not let things take him off guard. However, at that precise moment he couldn't help but recoil from Sam.

Sam removed his hands from his head and raised his head as if the pain had gone, as his jaw pulled tight, his visage changing into a snarl of a smile. His eyes had taken on a red tone that completely covered the pupil...looking as if bloody pools resided there in their place.

Dean backed up as Sam rose to his feet. "Sam?" Dean's voice wavered this time. 

"Death comes swift to the ill prepared." Sam's voice became so low and deep that it seemed to reverberate from the depths of hell.

"Not good." Nessa whispered low inching forward towards Dean. Sam's head twisted in her direction and she near jumped at the contortion of the muscles in his facial features. 

"You have become intoxicated with the spoils of plunder...It has made you weak." Sam near growled at her.

"Sam!" Dean felt Ambre slide up behind him. "You still in there Sammy?"

Sam's head snapped back to face Dean with a snarl as his limbs moved forward disjointedly. Sam stepped right up to Dean face to face so close that Dean could feel his breath against his skin. "Do not let him break the covenant."

Sam suddenly closed his eyes and pitched forward falling to his hands and knees before Dean gasping for breath. Dean stood his ground a moment before Sam looked up at him his eyes normal again except for the few stray tears of blood that dripped down his cheeks. "Sam?" Dean dropped to his knees in front of his brother and pulled him back up so that he could give him a look over.

The lights quit flickering around them.

Sam's face contorted again as the pain seemed to take back over.  
"Not again...Come on Sam...talk to me."

"It was the god." Sam gasped out.  
"Oh hell no...we got to find a way to get these things out of us or at least him." Dean looked to Nessa enraged.

"Hey I didn't put them in there to begin with." Nessa held up both hands in defense.

Sam grunted against the pain splitting his head in two and looked up at Dean forcing the helplessness of fear away with one quick mental shove. "It's coming."

"What's coming?" Ambre's voice fell as she pulled her robe around her tighter.

Sam could remember it all now. His dream...his conversation with Alturoc. But now he had a cacophony of noise in his head mingled with the vision as the two thing god and innate ability vied for power. "The demon."

"Our demon?" Dean's eyes widened as he watched Sam struggle through the pain stoically, his heart breaking for his brother as the fear tightened around his heart.

Sam managed a nod as he pulled himself to his feet before he was all the way there though he had to grab Dean by the shoulders as the vision finally forced it's way to the surface.

There was a flash of light in Sam's head that preceded the image of the very hotel room in which they seemed fated to make their last stand. Only in this image Ambre, Dean, and Nessa were on fire on the ceiling as Sam saw himself flung out the glass of the balcony doors to plummet the nine story drop onto pavement. 

Sam jerked back up his eyes wide as the vision cleared and Dean stared back at him with a questioning fearful look.

"It's here." Sam whispered.

Dean looked to the door as Sam pushed off him and sat down on the edge of the bed trying to get himself together. Things were different now. They had abilities...they were all getting stronger...faster...they could do things that other people would kill to be able to do. Dean still didn't want to face it like this though...out of the blue with no warning. It felt suicidal. He couldn't even begin to imagine what the god had been talking about when it had taken over Sam's body, but the fact that it could do that at all scared the shit out of him.

Dean thought about the man he had seen in the mirror at the drug store, the woman's voice that Ambre had spoken of when she had been climbing to the top of the crater. It was one thing for these guys that had given them the power that they had to be speaking to them...it was a whole other deal if they were going to be taking them over regularly. Dean wished he knew how far this could go...but right now...they all had a more immanent threat to deal with.  
All eyes were cast to the light again as the insane flicker began again.

Chapter Eighteen

He ducked his head low in the frigid night air and slowly sank his hands into his pockets as he walked with a calm cool confidence toward the elevator. He was alone. He had been forewarned. He knew their capability had strengthened.

A slow smile began to form at the corner of his mouth as he finally thought that they may actually pose a challenge. "This should be good." his deep voice echoed in his ears as he stepped into the elevator and pressed 9 before leaning back rather relaxed against the metallic wall at his back. 

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Dean pulled Sam to his feet from the edge of the bed as he took his gun in hand. "It's time to go." Dean turned to Ambre still clad in her bathrobe and Nessa who was already packing up everything that she could.

"Ambre you can change in the car. We don't have time right now." Sam pulled away from Dean as he started giving the orders. "You good?" Dean asked him making sure he could walk straight.

"Dean, we don't have time to get out...it's two doors down." Sam felt his facial muscles relax at the pain receded and saw Dean's eye's widen at the information.

This was not happening...not like this. Dean turned as the frustration and anger settled across his features and he nodded as if this was just another par for the course. Everything had been stacked against them from the beginning and now this. He walked to the end of the bed he and Ambre had shared only a few minutes ago and took out a book from a bag that resided there. He quickly thumbed through the pages and paused when eh found the right one.

That they were relying on some force inside them that was never supposed to be there to begin with was driving him nuts anyway, but this just added a whole new level to the dilemma.

Everything inside him was screaming for this to not be set in stone. He didn't even know what Sam had seen in his head, but he didn't need to...not right now. They just had to live through this...just live long enough to make it to Chattanooga and get that damn glowing arrow off their head telling everyone where they were every moment of the day.

"Ok." Dean looked up from the book. He cut a glance to Ambre and handed it to her pointing at the circle there. "You think you char that out?" She gave a nervous nod pulling her bathrobe around her even tighter as she studied the symbol. Dean looked to Sam and Nessa. "The bullets aren't going to do much good...and whoever he's inside...is most likely an innocent person so lets try to do this without killing the innocent bastard. Sam...can you..."  
"I don't know how well the psychic stuffs going to work...but You know I'll give my best." Sam replied as if Dean didn't really need to ask. "Or die trying."

"We're going to try and avoid the death thing...I can only bring one person back at a time and that's if they just died...I really don't want to test the limits of that one just yet." Dean nodded and looked to Nessa. "Well Guardian...you got anything in your arsenal that doesn't involve killing...something that will hold him back or subdue him?"

"My charming wit?" Nessa snapped feeling completely helpless. She was used to being able to kill what was after her or her charges. "I can take a pretty good beating and still walk out of it."

"Right we'll let you answer the door." Dean smirked quickly before letting the grin fall back into seriousness. "And you won't have to worry about the beating...if he gets a hold on you he'll rip you apart from the inside."

"My mind is so at ease." Nessa flinched her fists opened and closed in anticipation of the fight to come.

Ambre let out a whimper at their back and Dean turned feeling his heart sink. They couldn't take much more of this. He placed his hand on her shoulder wishing he could give her the strength to do this, himself. He knew though that they all had to find their own. "You've just got to hold it together this one more time. You've got to get that symbol drawn. We'll keep it busy as long as we can...but once you've finished he has to be drawn into it before we can trap him. Sam and I both know the exorcism. " He called to her as Sam's head snapped to look to the door.

"Show time." Sam whispered.

Several things happened at once. Things were definitely not going in their favor from the get go and the limited planning could fall a part in at any given moment. The first thing that drew all of their attention to the door was the door imploding inward in fragments that knocked Dean and Ambre to the floor as the pieces hit them dead on.

The bones in Nessa's wings snapped like dried twigs with a shrill cry that near shattered the glass of the balcony door as she sailed into the wall back first and was slowly being propelled upward.

Sam stood alone between the rest of the group and the stranger with the yellow eyes before them.

The demon smiled as Sam waved off a powerful psychic slap that was meant to send him to the wall. Ambre and Dean weren't so lucky though. They didn't even have time to get to their feet before they were being dragged across the floor and then up the wall matching Nessa's pace.

"You're getting stronger." The deep throaty voice seemed to growl at Sam.  
Nessa hit the ceiling screaming out again as her mid section turned red and the blood began to drip on to the closed pizza box.

Sam went on the offensive and shoved the demon back out the door with his own psychic strong arm. He felt the power there and accessible, much stronger then it had been before as if the god having taken him over had released the whatever blockade there had been for him to have full access. When he raised his arm to knock the bastard back the demon betrayed his surprise as he flew backwards into the corridor beyond the still open hole where the door had resided.

The demon's borrowed body slammed into the wall across the hall from the room and he quickly pulled himself up cracking his neck as he made his way back toward the room. " Can you keep that up indefinitely?"

"For as long as it takes." Sam taunted back as Ambre suddenly cried out as her mid section began to turn red as Nessa's.

Somewhere in the depth of fear and horror, or pain and madness Ambre forced her eyes to the ceiling around her. She could see the book turned to the correct page on the floor and as Sam and the demon seemed intent to go into some whose is bigger dialogue she took the opportunity to hopefully do as Dean asked. She had never really tried to ignite or char anything...it had always just happened. But as Dean and Sam's power had grown she could also feel her own getting stronger. 

"It's not a matter of endurance...it's how many people you're willing to let die in the mean time."

As they continued on Ambre could see the charring begin to shape itself into the intricate pattern reflected on the page of the book below. She cried out though as she saw the blood from her abdomen begin to coat the books pages. She had to buy some more time. She knew Dean was concerned about not killing the man the demon possessed, but he also said that this had to happen in order for them to walk away from this. Her mind was made up in a fraction of a second.

There was a spark at the corner of Sam's eye and he barely saw the tiny ball of flame as it sailed past him and struck the demon in the stomach before the force of the blast knocked the demon through the corridor wall and Sam backwards through the pain of glass of the balcony and over the balconies edge. He saw the flames dancing across the ceiling on the fall downward.

Ambre near lost consciousness from the shock of seeing Sam go over the balcony, from the blood loss. She hadn't meant for the blast to be that powerful.

As soon as the Demon went through the far wall Dean, Ambre, and Nessa felt their battered bodies falling to the floor. Dean caught himself on hands and knees with a grimace as Sam sailed over the edge of the balcony. "Sam " He screamed after him.  
"This no killing policy has to go." Nessa screamed out as she pulled a bloody hand from her middle. "Or we're dead."

"Agreed." Dean nodded. He slid to a halt on the balcony and smiled down at the sight that greeted him.

That made Ambre feel slightly better...though not much. She didn't move from her position on the floor as she protectively threw one arm over her still bleeding stomach and looked back up at the ceiling so she could finish. By the time she was done consciousness was just wishful thinking and she slowly fell limp to the floor over the book.

There were mere fractions of a second to the fall where Sam tried to reason out where he had gone wrong. With visions there was usually something he could do to stop what had occurred from happening. He wasn't willing to accept that this was one of those times. Sam felt the pull of his power. His body stopped in mid air and he turned his gaze up to the swiftly igniting room.

It only took a second for him to propel himself back up to the balcony where Dean stood shaking his head with a smile.

"Well superman...looks like I have to worry about you a lot less." Dean smiled as he offered Sam his hand and pulled him over back onto the balcony. "Let's do this." They both simultaneously turned on their feet and walked back into the room just as the demon entered through the hotel door with a growl.

Dean glanced up and saw the completed circle and Ambre's fallen form on the floor to the left of it. Now they just had to get the bastard into it. "Sam." Dean motioned upward to the circle hoping that his brother had the strength to simply position the demon where he wanted him.

Sam nodded and gave a wave of his arm trying to shove the demon into the circle. The demon waved his own arm with a snarl and seemed to shake it off like it was nothing. That's when it happened. Nessa had been holding herself against the wall behind the remains of the door less hole that had once been the entrance to the room. She gave a growl of her own and rushed the man tackling him into the circle. 

There was only one slight problem...she was inside it with him.

"Son o fa bitch." Dean jumped as the two bodies collided with the floor it had taken every bit of the strength that she had left to maneuver the beast into that circle. "Sam start it." Dean breathed as he watched Nessa and the demon picking themselves up in the center.

They were circling each other like some crazy predator vs. predator wildlife special as Sam's voice rang out in Latin. The demon looked up with a snarl and grabbed Nessa around the throat.  
"Keep Going!" Nessa rasped out only to have the demon squeeze until she couldn't get another word in. Nessa kicked out with her legs though the demon seemed impervious to the blows.  
Sam continued as Dean looked for some kind of opening so that he could do something anything to get Nessa out of the circle.

"Yeah keep it up...if you want her to die." The demon was losing his cool edgy confidence by the boat loads. He pulled her head to the side in an effect to begin to crack her neck. "Oh wait...I know what your thinking..."

Sam kept on spouting off the Latin as Dean glared daggers through the bastard. He was ready to take over if Sam should falter. "You'll just bring her back." The demon locked eyes with Dean. And suddenly thrust his hand through Nessa's chest. There wasn't a bloody mess it was as if his had simply cut through the mortal form and he pulled her spirit halfway out of her body. "But it won't work this time."

"Keep going." Nessa's spirit got out, but Sam had stopped mesmerized by the site, terrified of the implications.

Dean picked up where Sam had let out and saw a sad smile form at the corners of Nessa's mouth. There were only three more phrases left and the demon was shuddering from the incantation.

"Dean." Sam rushed at him not willing to let someone else die like this...it was worse then the demon simply killing her. He was going to drag her to hell with him. Dean grabbed at Sam trying to push him off as he hit the floor on his back and kept right no pushing through the passages. The two of them grunted out as Dean looked straight into Sam's eyes at the last word. Sam was shaking his head but Dean said it.

There was a scream that turned both brother's eyes to the circle as the black mass of spirit escaped from the host dragging Nessa's spirit with it. The two screams reached an ear splitting crescendo as every pane of glass in the room shattered around them. Sam's own "No!" Reached Dean's ears as Sam pushed off him and walked into the circle seeing the last of her spirit ripped through the floor. 

Dean lay there panting and closed his eyes after looking to the ceiling where the circle had been charred there. It had to be done. He told himself that as he slammed his fist into the ground. She even knew it.

"You bring her back!" Sam whirled on Dean who was pulling himself into a sitting position.

"It won't work." Dean whispered.

"You don't know that." Sam spat out at him shaking his head as his fists shook with anger.

"I do." Dean did know...somewhere from a millennia worth of backlogged knowledge about where his abilities came from...he knew. "She knew what she was doing the minute she shoved him into that circle." Dean looked away unable to look Sam in the eye just yet. He knew it felt like betrayal. But it had to be done. 

"There has to be a way." Sam kept on.

"If you find one you let me know, because right now the law is going to be hot on our trail for this mess and we have to get to Chattanooga before Alturoc decides to send something else after us." Dean got to his feet and started toward Ambre's unconscious form. He had only taken a few steps before Sam nailed him with a punch to the jaw.

"You bastard...you let him kill her." Sam screamed at him.  
"She told me to." Dean glared back at Sam as soon as he recovered from the punch.

Sam stood there nodding a moment and Dean sensed that he would let him pass. Dean stepped around him and picked up Ambre healing her as he did. He grabbed up a bag as he positioned her in his arms and started for the doorway. 

"I told you to let me even though it meant I would die once." Sam's voice cut through the hard wall of anger and pain swarming through Dean's head. "You said at the time that it wasn't worth dying over."

Dean stopped for just a moment. He couldn't come back with some saving words of grace. He couldn't deny the fact that he believed that...and for a moment Dean felt like the decision may not have been rationalized out far enough. It had been harder to force himself to stop with the incantation then it had been to continue. What scared him though, what really scared him, was that he wasn't sorry. "We've got a four hour drive til we can kiss this all goodbye...you coming?"

Sam reluctantly picked up his own bag as he looked to Nessa's fallen body in the floor. He finally couldn't force another word out though as he walked past Dean signifying that he was still with him. 

Chapter Nineteen

_Conclusions are so hard to write...let me just say that in advance. _

The silence in the car was filled with tension and remorse for the whole of the last 32 hours save one bitter sweet victory. The demon was gone...at least for now. Banished for as long as such things lasted.

Sam couldn't find words to express what he was feeling. He couldn't believe that Dean could decide to let Nessa die like that...just like that...no pause. No remorse, at least none readily evident. Sam wanted the thing dead as much as Dean, but as he had watched Nessa's life held in the balance he couldn't help but see Jessica on the ceiling engulfed in flames...their father in the floor of the hospital...it was if the demon couldn't be killed without taking one last claim in his possession.

Dean looked steadily at the road hands gripping the wheel tightly. Ambre hadn't woken and so far the near four hours of silence and limited stops had done little to pull his mind off the look on Sam's face when he finished the incantation. Dean could still hear Nessa's shrill scream coupled with the demons. He could feel it like a reminder that nothing came without a price.

He remembered so many hours ago realizing that, as he found that he had the ability to heal. They had paid for their abilities enough for two life times in the span of two days. And they had paid for vengeance with Nessa's life. That she was so willing to die for the cause only made Dean proud of her in a way. The way she spoke about what she did, this was her life. She protected people. It was her right, her duty, her's alone to decide wether or not she would sacrifice everything for those that she had in her charge. The only reason Dean could do what he did was because he fully understood where she was coming from.

He had the same right, the same duty, and an unending promise to protect his brother. She made the decision and Dean wasn't sorry that he finished the incantation. He was sorry that she died though. He never really liked her that much, but now, he respected her.

Dean hadn't spoken because he knew no matter what he said that he and Sam couldn't see eye to eye on this, that Sam didn't understand the perspective. Sam was a great guy, with a heart that was larger then life and an endurance to soldier on that amazed Dean at times. But this was one thing, one solemn thing that he couldn't broach with him.

Dean pulled into the drive of an old Victorian two story house and put the car in park, shutting of the engine. The sudden quiet stirred Ambre who slowly sat up in the back seat. She took a moment to look over the occupants of the car before she asked the question that she truly knew she didn't want an answer to.

"Where's Nessa?" it was little more then a whisper, but Sam turned to look at her as Dean opened his door and got out of the car to stretch.

Sam swallowed the hard knot that had formed in his throat as he tried to think of a way to tell her. "She didn't make it." Seemed to sound a little less comforting then he intended. He saw the look of confusion cross Ambre's face as the tears welled up in her emerald eyes.

"I don't understand...couldn't Dean..." Sam shook his head. The anger couldn't be hidden from his features as he did so and finally looked away from Ambre opening his own door. Ambre seemed to accept it in her own way as she followed the two slowly up the walk, shuffling battle weary limbs against stone and gravel all the way to the back door.

"Did you banish the demon?" Ambre asked softly as they reached the door.

"Yes ma'am." Dean nodded just before knocking. They fell silent as they all stood there waiting.  
It seemed that they stood that way forever...silent...in shock...waiting.

When Ben came to the door Dean smiled genuinely glad to see the old friend of their fathers. He hadn't changed much. He still had that easy going, kind, and generous spirit that could put a saint to shame...save the complete and utter lack of innocence.

"Good to see you boys." Be's broad smile seemed to lighten the mood between the three as he offered a strong handshake to Dean and Sam and then gave the singed bathrobe clad Ambre a look over with a quizzical expression. "And you're friend...looks like we have a lot to talk about. Come on in."

Sam made the introduction as all Dean seemed intent on doing was getting the scrying stopped as fast as he could. "Ben, this is Ambre...Ambre - Ben. He's an old friend of our father's."  
"Boy I'm not old." Ben laughed heartily as he motioned them inside. "Don't you know this is the prime of your life."

Sam chuckled along behind him as Ambre gave Dean a look over wondering why he seemed to have turned so cold. "It's a pleasure." Ambre said quickly trying to at least be cordial.

They walked in through the kitchen and saw that Ben had already collected the small coven there and that they were now pouring over books at the kitchen table as they rambled on about life in general and a few of them squabbled over which herbs were right for the spells they were trying to combine.

"We've been up all night working on that problem for ya, Dean. I think it's ready." Ben said as he showed them into the front living room and motioned for them to sit. "We ran into a few snags. It's not really a spell. It's a potion." Ben waited for everyone to get seated before he sat down in the far armchair and folded his hands across hie knees. "And it will wear off."

"How long does it last?" Dean asked with a nod. He was willing to except that. If it was the best they could offer.

"About 48 hours by my estimation. But we've made you enough for two weeks and Lissa is in there copying the recipe and directions so you guys can make it yourselves." Ben paused no longer to go without commenting on the condition of the group. "What in the hell of you guys stepped into this time?"

"I have a feeling your better off not knowing." Sam said quietly.

"We need to go ahead and get that first does in us, now." Dean near cut in. It was the urgency that Ben seemed to take to heart as he slowly rose to his feet realizing that he wasn't going to get an answer. "Sure, I'll go get it...Ambre Lissa has some clothes I'm sure will fit you down the hall and the second door on the right, if you're looking to get into something other then that bathrobe...might warm you up some."

Ambre rose to her feet about to go on and get changed as Ben walked into the kitchen to retrieve the potions. "Wait til you get dosed up." Dean spoke up immediately motioning for her to sit back down.

"Dean it won't take long." Sam turned on Dean betraying his anger in every word.

"It doesn't matter how long it takes if something come busting through the windows and massacres the whole lot of us.

"Oh, I didn't realize you were still worried about wether we all lived or died." Sam snapped back.

Ambre sat back down watching the two of them in wonder, realizing that she had missed more then she initially thought. Dean's jaw twitched with a sniff as he turned on Sam.  
"You really feel that way?" Dean asked his own voice seething with defense and anger.

Sam met his eyes for a good long moment before looking away. "I don't know how I feel. We've never sacrificed someone like that before."

"That's your problem." Dean spoke up. "We didn't sacrifice anyone. Nessa knew what she was doing."

"She didn't mean to get caught in that circle." Sam shook his head in disagreement.

"She tackled him Sam. She hit him full on and wrapped both arms around him. She meant to make sure she got him where he needed to be. And she's been around long enough to know how those circles work. She didn't walk into this blind. She's not some innocent bystander. She knew exactly what she was doing."

"What was it...what are you so damn sure that she knew what she was doing?" Sam asked in wonder as he tried to figure out just how it was that Dean thought he could read minds all of a sudden.

"She was protecting us." Dean looked to the floor as he said it. "And she was doing whatever it took to do it." he sniffed again hiding the pain behind his eyes as he met Sam's eyes again repeating for the last time. "She knew exactly what she was doing."

"There still had to have been another way ..."

"There wasn't...and the longer you keep running it over in your head the more unsure of it your going to get until you've made a whole mess of it. It's over with. She made her choice. And you need to give her enough respect to acknowledge that. She made the sacrifice...we didn't sacrifice her."

Ambre drew her legs up beside her on the couch. She hadn't been the same since the farmstead and now she looked paler then usual as she just listened to the two of them talk about Nessa's death. It was like and every reference to the last few days cut her to the quick and she just drew back inside herself. She had started rocking by the time Sam turned his attention away from Dean long enough to realize that she was in a bad way again.

Sam swallowed looking to the floor between his hands. Dean was right about one thing. He couldn't keep playing it out in his head. He at least knew that Dean felt passionate about his decision wether or not Sam thought it was the right one or not. He'd spent the last four hours trying to figure out another way to have saved her and nothing had come to mind yet. Nothing had surface to give any indication that things could have gone any differently. If Nessa had tackled the demon...if she hadn't...it was all like that. Sam couldn't find fault with his own actions save maybe moving faster.

"It's alright Ambre." Sam said softly finally looking back up at her. "We'll get this potion in us and then they won't be able to find us."  
"The fighting will stop?"

"The fighting will stop." Dean nodded folding his hands together as he rested his elbows on his knees. He sure hoped he wasn't lying. He knew there were other ways that people could be tracked, but this should at least buy them enough time to figure out a better way...to figure out who or what it was that was inside them...to find a way to live...to find some answers.

"Here we go." Ben carried three flasks of dark green sludge into the room and all eyes went to the contents of the flasks with a frown.

"We have to drink that?" Dean asked with a grimace.

"Yep." Ben smiled as he handed them out. Dean and Sam both looked down at the gooey liquid questionably cutting a glance to each other then to contents of the glass again. Dean held it up to his nose and pulled his head away making a gagging sound as Sam's frown deepened.

It was Ambre that surprised them all by speaking up with a quick. "Bottoms up." before holding her nose and downing the entire glass.

Dean and Sam looked at her like that was the last straw...she had truly lost what was left of her mind. But the added confidence that the liquid...if one could call it that... would ease the burden that had become their lives seemed to help calm her enough to get her moving.

She made a face when it was all over and handed the glass back to Ben before standing now very ready tp change clothes. She paused hiccuped before a giggle escaped her. "Whew...that's stout." There was a certain slur to her voice as she said it that caused Dean to raise an eyebrow.  
"Exactly what's in this stuff?" He held up the glass as he motioned to Ambre now staggering down the hall looking for the bedroom that Ben had pointed her in earlier.

Ben folded his arms across his chest as he pulled his bottom lip in with a nervous nibble. "You'll develop a tolerance to the intoxication effect."

"Oh." Now both Dean's eyes brows shot up as his eyes widened in an I cannot believe this moment. "How long ya think that'll take...cause one of us has to drive out of here." Dean watched as Sam downed his own drink even knowing the effects.

"And it looks like it's going to be you." Sam gasped out as he covered his mouth with a wince from the horrid after taste.

"Oh no you don't." Dean downed his flask as Ben started laughing. 

"Relax with that in your system you should be safe from whatever it is that's hunting you." Ben patted them each on the shoulder and shook his head. "It's good to have you boys around again. You think you might stay awhile?"

"Maybe just a few days." Sam smiled as his vision began to double. He narrowed his eyes with a sniff as he tried to place his cup on the table three times before it dropped to the floor with a clatter. 

"Perfect." Ben smiled. "Why don't you go grab a shower and we can have a nice dinner." Ben wiped the soot off his hand from where he had patted the two of them as he looked to where Ambre disappeared. "You all look like you could use a rest."

"I'll drink to that." Dean smiled holding up his empty cup. Now he just had to make it all the way to the shower... 


End file.
